Poetry Corner- "A Past"

It's interesting to look back at our pasts and see who we once were. I was going through my portfolio from my first ever writing class for my major and I came across a set of poems. These poems came during a darker period of my life, a time when I was dealing with much more than I thought I could handle. I love this poem because it reminds me that I am stronger than I thought I was and that I am a much better person for all that I have gone through. Now this poem makes me laugh a bit because I remember my teacher asking if I needed to talk afterward...oh how time has gone by but I'm better for everything that has made me who I am!

"A Past"

 A past haunts my present,

It's horrible and true. 

It was nothing I could prevent,

But it affects all I do.

This past is filled with terror,

With choices for the worst.

It's a past filled with error,

A past that was forced.

This past was violent and tearful,

Abusive and controlled,

With moments that are fearful,

A past of doing what you're told.

This past plagues my waking;

It's in everything I do.

It inhibits my choice making

And my personal point of view.

This past controls my inability to trust.

It often keeps me from being me,

And in love I am a bust

For this past holds my heart's key.

This past refuses to let go

But on the outside I seem fine.

And I don't know how all this is so...

Because this past isn't even mine.

The past is our definition.  We may strive, with good reason, to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it, but we will escape it only by adding something better to it.  ~Wendell Berry

Look not at the days gone by with a forlorn heart.  They were simply the dots we can now connect with our present, to help us draw the outline of a beautiful tomorrow.  ~Dodinsky

Bring the past only if you are going to build from it.  ~Doménico Cieri Estrada

What you need to know about the past is that no matter what has happened, it has all worked together to bring you to this very moment.  And this is the moment you can choose to make everything new.  Right now.  ~Author Unknown   

 

It's time to look to my future, it sure looks bright :)