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Stephani E.D. McDow

Poet’s Corner: Now

08/28/2016

Now

I believe

That your true strength rears its head in the midst of pain and distress

Not because you’ve said it’s so or how you show its true in your walk or in the words you use but

When you can’t breathe
That look that flashes across your face or when your eyes give voice to the blood-curdling sobs from your soul

I Believe it’s at the cusp of such that your calm is the only thing that makes sense in the moment,

and

When it feels like your skin is being ripped from your flesh
or your spirit is being tormented
It’s that space that you unwittingly settle into with
Acute senses analyzing and calculating every move and sound made in your now and formulating the
appropriate response
With ease
And confused certainty.

When the sound of your voicelessness walks you through all the truths alongside the dramatically timed
base of your heart keeping pace to the greatness of how you deal

It’s surreal. That clarity that encompasses you with grave urgency
Because right now is the only time

And without external coaching or coaxing
All of the information you need is palpable and strikingly clear (to you)

It’s imperative to be this present presently
to live the predetermined law that
You matter

And no matter what is before you, regardless of the clutches within which you weep
You are not defeated.