Reader Connections: Paintings And Poetry

Paintings and Poetry is a visual and literary art collection from ElderHealth members and guest contributors. Their work will also be featured in the Winter edition of the 2023 Heart at Home newsletter. Thank you for sharing your talent and gifts with the ElderHealth community.

Paintings by Sharon F.

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Choosing

by Sharon F.

Thoughts arise and then dissolve
Feelings come, then feelings go
Memories call out from the past
This is the human life we know

And yet there is a life divine
Filled with love and joy so bright
And the choice is always mine – –
In this moment, I choose light.

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In alien land

by Christa L.

Yes I can 
sit in the cart with you, rattling
down this patch of rock-strewn road.

Hold the lamp high,
dim the wick,
soften the light.

Trapped together
on this stretch 
of alien land.

Our passports cleared.
One to stay,
          one to go.

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Afterparty

by Becky Hemsley

Guest contributor, author, and poet BeckyHemsley.com

I held a party the other week and grief came. She wasn’t invited but she came anyway; barged her way in through the door and settled down like she was here to stay.

And then she introduced me to the friends she’d brought with her.
Anger
Fear
Frustration
Guilt
Hopelessness

And they sang in the loudest voices, took up space in the corner of every room and spokeover anyone else that tried to talk.

They made it messy and loud and uncomfortable.
But finally, they left.

And long afterwards, when I was all alone, I realised there was still someone here.
Quietly clearing up after the rest.

I asked who she was. And she told me, “Love.”

And I assumed that’s why she looked familiar – because I had met her before.

“Or perhaps,” she said, “it’s because I’ve been here the whole time.”

And I was confused then, because I hadn’t seen her all evening.
But when I looked more closely,
when I looked into her eyes,

I realised quietly that she had been here. All the time.

She’d just been dressed as grief.

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Learn more about Reader Connections from Laura Aylmer, LCSW. We welcome you to contribute to our next edition of the Heart at Home newsletter.