world – She Be Fierce

poetry, Poetry, Writer blog

She Be a Poet ~ Shangri La

April 5, 2022February 25, 2023 shebfierce

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com

Take me on a journey I want to see,

the world and its colours,

the blue of the sea.

Mountains, thawed snow peaks,

they hide in grey clouds,

home to the Gods,

resting place of the proud.

Beauty in places so far out of reach,

the warmth of the people,

as they frolic on the beach.

Happiest are children playing in the sand,

knowing only of their world,

oblivious to the pain of faraway lands.

Senses are suddenly woken,

sight, sound, and smell,

new friends are made so easliy,

they invite you to dwell.

Open you become to the wonders you see,

a fading life for others,

Shangri La to me.

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Sorry Not Sorry – Don’t Break a Sweat Will You!

February 21, 2015February 10, 2021 shebfierce

Remember the good old days when people said sorry? The days when you didn’t have to look ‘inside yourself’ and ask why YOU attracted it? (whatever IT might be) Now, we live in a world where God forbid you blame someone else or expect the person/people who have thrown you under a bus to be accountable.

Further more, after ‘looking inside yourself’, you are now being encouraged to ‘let it go’? This new Frozen mantra leaves me a bit cold and frost bites! I have had more than my share of ice-cold stabbing pains in the past four years and am amazed at the lengths people will travel to avoid an apology; hoping they can count on my dislike for confrontation to save them from reasoning their shifty actions.

Before anyone can let anything go, they need to hear the words, “I’m sorry”. As an expert in being dropped from a great height by the most unexpected sources, it wouldn’t go a miss. For all the wrong that people do (and they know what those wrongs are) how difficult can saying one word really be?

Sorry really does seem to be the hardest word for some as they carry on regardless in a deluded haze, believing that they won’t ever have to. Blame is now considered to be a strong word, stronger than the ‘F’ word even. When did this happen and why is a perfectly acceptable word now seen as the new expletive?

Maybe this all boils down to what is right and wrong on a moral level. The values which you were probably brought up with but have conveniently forgot in order to get what you want in this dog eat dog world?

It’s a bit like my daily commute to work and the fight for a seat like a stand-off in a spaghetti western. A seat becomes free and I walk, not run, towards it. A man sees the same seat and scurry’s in a weasel like fashion to sit his butt down before me. He gets there before I do but the adrenaline filled steps he takes flop as he does on the seat. I stand in front of him, taller and without breaking a sweat to ruin my morning make-up.

Man, woman or child, everyone is entitled to a seat on the train and how you get it is up to you. As for this seat grabber, if what he did was right, why did he sheepishly keep his head down for the entire journey? Unable to look up, he was the one sweating.

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Greatness – A Priceless or Cheaper Version of You?

February 1, 2015February 10, 2021 shebfierce

For those of you who don’t know, I am a fierce football fan and Arsenal football club are my beloved team. I am a believer in greatness and it is something I was fortunate enough to witness with our ‘Invincibles’ team of the 2003/4 English Premier League season. A team that complimented each other so well, a delight to watch, but has also burdened us with an expectation from all footballs quarters to do it again and again without a bad performance in between.

Frustratingly for many of my fellow supporters we had an 8 year gap of nothing especially great at all. I was watching a recent game which suggested everything is falling into place now and that either the stars have aligned over the Emirates Stadium or the vision of our manager called for us to have patience as we waited longingly for the best to come back.

His obvious to me goal, made me think of all the talented people I have come across, who have a similar way of thinking even though their chosen field of play is very different. There are sacrifices on this tunnel visioned road and there will be casualties on the lay-by and sanity is strenuously tested as they hold strong the belief that they know where they are headed. I am always in awe of this strength of character even if at times it can be perceived as selfish, stubborn, egotistical and detached.

Quick fixes are a misleading answer and it is a sadness that our world today bullies its inhabitants into being a cheaper version of themselves and not a priceless one. The pressure to have it all in the time it takes you to brush your teeth is immense and the impatience to obtain all that you seek will come with false friends who don’t believe in you in the long-term.

The word itself ‘greatness’ suggests that its meaning is vast and bigger than we can ever imagine. Greatness to me is allowing someone the room to breathe and discover as I know through personal experience how constraints can lead us to simply exist and not live. Allowing people space and freedom implies that you are ready for greatness too. It is a characteristic that, in this ME ME ME age, is a rarity. Maybe one day, it will be popular again.

‘One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals’

Michelle Obama

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Mountains and Metaphors – Have You Reached Your Peak?

November 15, 2014February 10, 2021 shebfierce

With there being so much hostility and division in the world, I wonder if there is at least one thing that religious and mythological stories have in common? A God or Goddess is the obvious answer but there is another link that comes to my mind.

This common denominator is tall, robust, sturdy and when reached can take you to new heights. Not made of blood or bones but from elements born from this Earth of ALL of ours. Whilst the world and the beliefs of its inhabitants change at an alarming rate, there are mountains that can’t be moved.

Mount Sinai, Mount Olympus and Mount Zion (to name a few) will bring you closer to God if you reach their heady snow laden tops according to scriptures dating back thousands of years. This mountain metaphor is an interesting one and prompts theologists, scientists, spiritualists and atheists to ask questions and passionately debate the origins of the mountainous myth.

Most of us hold on to myths because they somehow fit within our own level of thinking, feelings and make up part of our family fabric. Reaching your peak however, is no myth but a fact. It is a fact that we are all trying to rise without a harness or net to fall into if we loosen our grip. It is also a fact that the epic and romantic stories of the past see one person starting out alone but ending the journey with a multitude of people by their side.

People will fall, lose their footing, have their sight inhibited by storms and freak conditions. Some will look at the mountain and think, “Not today”. Inquisitive others will look up, unable to see the top through the clouds and wonder what they will find when they get there.

Not everything is as it seems and there are disappointments when you realise something is not how you imagined, no one said the mountain would be kind but it’s worth the journey, experience and may even surprise you.