1/25/21, Something Different
Hi Everyone,
When I first started writing, I wrote poems. I started in my teens, and the first things I published were poems, before I started writing novels, and one of my first books published was a book of love poems. I still write poems, although not very often. I always compare poems to artists’ sketches, they are just quick little drawings of one’s feelings, while a book is like a big oil portrait. (and short stories are somewhere in between.) The poems I write are usually love poems and they’re very spontaneous. They just bubble up to the surface and I quickly write them down.
That happened with the poem below a few days ago. I was thinking about the face we all present to the world, and the unseen scars and ‘broken parts’ we hide deep within us, hoping that no one will see them, fearing that others will love us less because of them. All or most of us have ‘broken parts’, scars from the past, old hurts, sadness or abuse in our childhood, the damage inflicted by people who hurt us. The scars are there, buried deep, and we hide them, not realizing that those who love us see them anyway and love us all the more because of those old broken parts, just as we love them with and for their broken parts. Those scars make us who we are, stronger, better, more human, more compassionate, lessons learned at a high price that have become part of us, and make each of us special, unique, and more beautiful, in the world, and to those who love us.
Have a great week, love, Danielle
Broken Parts
Looking in the mirror
of another’s eyes,
you realize
who they see,
the scars so glaringly
evident to you,
the broken parts,
the darkest ones
you think
only you can see
seem insignificant
to other eyes,
and matter not at all.
you’ve worn them
for so long
you’ve forgotten
that they’re there,
the scars have faded
to a shimmer,
the wounds no longer
quite so deep,
you look again
to see if they’re
healed
or well concealed,
only to realize
that seen by
loving eyes
they’re part of the beauty
they see in you,
the courage
and the strength,
not ugly to them
but part of
the landscape
of your soul,
just as their flaws
or wounds
or broken parts
are part of who
you love in them.
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I would like to get the book (A Gift of Love). I need large print. If you have the book, how much is it?
I would like to order the book (Something Different) in large print. Please let me know how much it is?
Hi Danielle,
It amazes me how poetry just flows from your heart so beautifully and I can`t go deeper than “Roses are red ,violets are blue.” God gave you this awesome talent that you graciously share.
To me this touching soulful poem expresses God`s unconditional love for His children.
Jeremiah 31:34 “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
We all want to receive unconditional love, but it is not easy for us to give it to others. When I look back on my many years, I have been blessed with family and friends who have overlooked my many glaring “Broken Parts” and loved me. My deep desire is to be the loving person in your poem, who never sees the failings in others. Unconditional love is a wonderful
gift to have and to give. I think that you have mastered the skill, Danielle. I am a work in progress.
With God`s love, Bonnie
Perhaps the theme is unconditional love, Danielle.
Maybe there no flaws when you see the perfect man like you did with the homeless:
I”n my earliest days on the streets, on a night when several disturbing-looking people ran up to me, I pulled myself together and thought, If Jesus came to me looking like this man, would I run? Or would I stand right where I am, face him, and embrace him? I forced myself to see Jesus in him every time I saw someone who scared me, and eventually I felt blessed, not frightened. And the people who seemed so upsetting to me melted into kind people, who welcomed us into their world. That vision worked for me.”
Danielle Steel
A Gift of Hope
Helping The Homeless
Amen!
Rob Scott
ABQ, NM
Everything you write touches every soul…!