The Power of Story – A Poem

Once

upon a time,

I believed that my story

had come to an end,

and that the last chapter

had already been written.

More,

I wanted to end it

and didn’t want to go on.

I didn’t think I could survive

my life as it had become.

At my lowest moment,

I tried to take my life

but I wasn’t able to.

I sat there,

unable to feel the sun

as it shone on my face,

wondering what had to change.

Later,

I realized that it was the story

that I was telling.

It was the narrative of my life

that I was putting out there

into the world

which had to change.

I put my fingers to the keyboard

and tried to write a new story,

a new narrative that would

tell a different tale

than the one I’d been living.

Soon,

words filled the air around me

as they flowed from my pen,

the scratching of ink and paper

or the clacking of my fingers on the keyboard

like a music that filled the space

around the words.

They floated into the air

and I watched as they

slipped through the window

and into the sky,

like silent wishes sent to the sun.

Then,

a light began to follow me

and I could not shake it,

couldn’t leave it behind.

It took me some time to realize

that the light was coming from me.

The people around me changed as well;

they went from those who

wanted to change me

to those who accepted me just as I am.

My light began to burn so brightly

that even I couldn’t help be charmed

by its constant warmth

and the whisper of a song

that only I could hear.

There was a whispering

that the light carried

and I knew that this

was the power of the story

that I chose to tell.

Now,

my life is so much different

than the life that I thought was mine.

It has taught me what courage really is.

Looking at my life,

I know that the final chapter

has yet to be written

and that it is all about choice.

Until then,

I will keep writing and listening

to the music within the words.

I will choose the story that

wants to be told

and will watch as the sky

fills up with words around

me.

* With thanks to Ami McKay