This page is currently under construction as we prepare to offer you more access to the poems right here, coming soon!

A glowing candle symbolizing hope and resilience in the journey of healing, reflecting themes from inspirational poems and motivational poetry.

Welcome to the power of poetry…

Here is an example of some of what you will find on the new page you can link above…but wait, there’s more! You will not only find the background for individual poems, but also tips for how to take the heartbeat from each one to apply to your own life. In other words, Audrey is still offering inspiration!

A woman reading a book by a window, bathed in sunlight, representing the comfort and encouragement found in meaningful poems and poems about resilience.

Audrey Cutts was my 6th grade teacher. She loudly and silently changed my life. Loud was how she moved in the world while I was trying my best to remain silent. Never before had I seen a woman command her way across the floor. She was a female force of nature and I was in awe of her presence, not to mention every word she unapologetically uttered.

Thanks to Mrs. Cutts I began to see that I, too, could not just take up space, but live a life of my own creation, and maybe, just maybe, it could even be filled with words!

—excerpt from “Audrey” found in Tiny Lights: Small Poems for Big Moments

Music heals.

Magnificent lyrics that heal and inspire!

Excerpts of The Forgiveness Poems, finally all in one place!

Forgiveness I

Don’t ever let anyone tell you how to forgive.

Go right ahead and hold on to those hurts until 

they have taught you every single thing you need to know.

They’re yours and nobody tells you when or 

where to let them go.

Don’t let anyone say you will love yourself more

if you drop them and then

to hurry up and get along with things,

Implying they have expiration dates or 

statutes of limitations.

–In Your Bones: Poems of Radical Forgiveness

Forgiveness III

It can be walking away or walking toward,

Igniting a conversation or setting off a firewall,

Staying stuck in one place or moving miles away, 

It can be done and redone until it’s well done.

It can free you if you keep checking in

with your heart.

–When You Know: Poems of Self-Love 

Forgiveness II

Let forgiveness take any form it needs to.

It can be saying nothing or saying everything.

It can be taking the heart that sits on your sleeve

and asking someone to hold it and feel its rhythm.

It can be showing up to pick the wires of a pacemaker out of the ashes before you cast them in the sea, when no one else will.

It can be standing in a field of bones letting your heart break long after those that tell you to go home are gone

and you can think about how you will walk again.

–In Your Bones: Poems of Radical Forgiveness

Forgiveness IV

Forgive Yourself for still warming your feet with the coals of the anger that saved you long after the saving is done.

Forgive Yourself for sitting too patiently at the end of a long line for your turn to let the warm water rush 

all over you.


–When You Know: Poems of Self-Love 

Lyrical Poetry

A blooming flower breaking through concrete, illustrating themes of survival and strength, resonating with positive poems and poems of inspiration.
An artist's hand sketching in a journal, symbolizing the therapeutic process of writing to heal and poetry therapy.

poem excerpt from When You Know by dpd

  The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. ~Marcel Proust

Some favorite words set to music…

A cozy reading nook with a stack of poetry books, capturing the essence of finding solace in poetry for healing and inspirational poems.
A sunrise over mountains, symbolizing new beginnings and hope, resonating with hopeful poems and poems about strength.
A group of friends laughing together, illustrating the support and joy found in community, akin to the sentiments in feel better poems and motivational poetry.
A delicate butterfly resting on a flower, symbolizing transformation and resilience, themes often explored in creative poems and poems about perseverance.
An elderly person writing in a diary, representing the wisdom and reflection found in poems about healing and the power of poetry.

Grief

A tranquil beach scene with gentle waves, evoking the soothing nature of positivity poems and the calming effect of poetry therapy.

One day grief will show up in a little red cap and a button nose to run in and out of the clover with an impish grin. 

Or you’ll see its red cap bob and then be gone only to find it perched on your back step when you look out to check on the moon.

Another day as you drive down the street you’ll see a sign erected in a random yard that says “Grief at Play” and you won’t see anyone, anywhere.

Then there will be two of them skipping down the street hand in hand and before you know it they’ve slipped through your secured windows. 

By the time you get inside there will be more sprawled across the couch stretched out like starfish with no room for you to sit.

Eventually though they will rise one by one, grab their sticks, and shuffle in retreat to the guest house only to return another day. 

You will learn to leave the doors and windows cracked and pull up more chairs before you retreat to your bed to rest up for that day.

from When You Know by dena parker duke

Sweet syrup

I want to suck

you down in slurps

and swallows not

stopping to burp

back or savor.

Fill my moon belly full.

Drip off my tongue in

velvet drops like gems,

while my veins pulse

in rhythmic nods-

strobe light neon.

Excerpt From “Sleep”

Gulps greedily 

gulp down air

Nerves jump 

when summoned

Cells just sit on the 

front stoop waiting

for high signs

Breaths ripple  

like flags

Heartbeats turn 

with the gentle purr 

of a rotisserie 

Thermostats

set to auto.

Excerpt From “There”

May we hold on to ourselves as the days flow by

in endless directions and herdings

so mundane 

even dogs would not follow. 

Give us joy in the unrehearsed moments free of 

targets and tasks that will

bury us if given 

the chance. 

Let us be more like them and 

more alive than

we 

can remember.

Excerpt From “Child Care”

A young woman with a serene expression, sitting by a lake, representing inner peace and the healing journey depicted in empowering poems and healing poetry.

UPDATE: While these all made pretty posters, they have all been significantly revised for a new project. But I love them here together, just as they were conceived…TBC

An inspiring quote from Maya Angelou displayed on a wall, highlighting the motivation and encouragement from motivational short poems and poems of inspiration.
A colorful mural of a heart with wings, symbolizing the strength and resilience in overcoming challenges, reflective of poems about survival and poems about success.
A close-up of a handwritten letter, capturing the intimacy and personal touch of poems about struggle and poems about recovery.
A vibrant cityscape at night, with lights shining brightly, representing the enduring spirit and hope found in stories of resilience and uplifting poems.

More poems “Under Construction”!

Yield

Make friends with your feelings
They are your allies
Don't accuse them of hysteria
When they are only there to
Inform you about what's
Making your heart speed
And palms drip

They are a resource
A blanket to cover you or
Fold up on the end of your
Bed for now but ignoring
Them sends short circuits
Leaving them stuck
On high alert somewhere
Inside you where you
Can't see them pointing
Your way home

Best Water Songs Ever

Pure poetry in motion...just like water.

The worst secrets are the ones 

you don’t know you’re keeping

that settle in your bones and 

seep into those hard white 

spaces that are alive 

with growing 

and breaking.

Excerpt From “It Is”

One pure narrow beam could make a 

wildfire or sparks to warm a heart.

The one thing illuminating our 

shadows. The presence waiting

deep inside us.

The glow in all our windows.

Excerpt From “A Tiny Light”

They will say to leave your couch 

travel  look happy

and you will know that your look will 

never tell the story

   of where you are or 

   where you’ve been or 

   where you’re going or even

bother to give an estimated time of arrival.

Excerpt From “ETA”

Best Lyrics Ever

It all begins with choice words that then get married to beats, harmonies, and melodies in perfect union. Pure poetry in motion...