Portrait of a Healing Heart

3 posts
User avatar
Gender Female
Points 15440
Reviews 245
Bright scarlet drips
from the bristles
of my paintbrush,
I'm sitting in front of my easel.
Music trickles from my radio,
but I'm not listening.
I've retreated to a place
deep within myself.
I'm burrowing deep,
perusing the pages of my thoughts,
discovering my true emotions.
Magically, they rush unto the canvas,
the empty white square of possibilites,
that sits before me.
It won't stay white for long.
If I was perfect, it'd be that way,
free of blemish and unscarred by pain,
and I'd hang it on my wall,
a masterpiece of which I could be proud.
But I'm imperfect, so on go the colors.
The silhouette of a heart,
criss-crossed with healing scars,
is the image which materializes.
I continue.
Slashes of black and blue,
symbols of my bruised spirit,
dash out of my brush.
Add a light wash of grey,
the color of my sadness,
and it's almost finished.
But not quite.
In the corner I paint the sun,
a molten orb glowing furiously.
It casts light onto the heart,
telling it that a brighter day will come,
pleading for it to hold on, to just hold on
until the clouds drift away.
I sign the painting and wait for it to dry,
waiting for the sun to come
and chase away the clouds.
“...it's better to feel the ache inside me like demons scratching at my heart than it is to feel numb the way a dead body feels when you touch it."

-Brian James




User avatar
Gender None specified
Points 983
Reviews 5
Well Done,
this is a well constructed story that really seems like
a ' portrait of a healing heart.'
You could work on you grammatical terms like commas and full stops
but other than that this dramatic poem is exceptionally good!
Keep up the good effort!!




User avatar
Gender Male
Points 732
Reviews 79
Interesting. This piece strangely aroused my curiosity of the type of person you are. It made me question what kind of mind you truly possess. The diction sounded antique. I am not even sure if that's possible but this is what I feel. The words were nicely chosen. Each line conjuring a unique image to the reader. You seem to have created a tale that can never end because the reader will always question what has become of that healing heart. The voice was serene yet very strong. It made the reader enter your world, slowly, from the first word to the very last. The only flaw was in your use of grammar. But truth be told, In my opinion the words and the images you made makes the reader forget about grammar. This is what I feel and I felt compelled to share it with you. Keep on writing and I'd love to read more of your works.
Tend your flame. It's what all we've got.



The idea that a poem was a made thing stayed with me, and I decided then that I wanted to be an artist, not just a diarist. So I put myself through a kind of apprenticeship in writing poetry, and I understood even then that my practice as a poet was deeply related to my reading.
— Edward Hirsch