Elaina, a RISE Supported Housing resident, shares this deeply personal poem, The Evolution, with us. Elaina uses poetry to express her feelings and the changes she has experienced though the circumstances in her life. Thank you Elaina for sharing your poetry with us.
The Evolution
I’ve been so badly bruised,
Certainly, deeply emotionally scarred.
I was lost and terribly confused,
When “home” was behind prison bars.I had to force myself to be tough,
So that I may continue to survive.
I told the truth, and had to bluff,
Whatever it took to stay alive.Few people truly knew me,
I was very often misunderstood,
Never liked to tell my story
As the aftermath was rarely good.Things were different so long ago,
Funny how time altered my point of view.
I learned hard truths I didn’t want to know.
Yet, because of all that pain, I grew.I’ve learned to accept myself as I am,
Embrace my many imperfections.
I give my best, and do all I can,
May that I bear to glimpse my own reflection.I don’t cower in the corner,
Or try to hide among the shadows.
I’ve become open, a bit warmer,
I am evolving and it shows.It’s truly impossible to tell
Just how much more I’ll change.
I recall my past, that living hell,
I’m happy how now. Isn’t life beautifully strange?
Elaina has been writing poetry since she was 14. She took advanced literature classes in high school where she learned how to write poems.
Some of her poems were published in a local paper in Vermont where she grew up. In 2013, some of her poems were published in an anthology called Hear Me, See Me: Incarcerated Women Write.
The love of writing poetry has stayed with Elaina throughout her life and she has used it as a coping skill for many years.