Poems by Caroline White

we crawl
we walk
we run
we fly

we fall
we break
we rage
we cry

we learn
we heal
we dream
we rise

oh,
how I miss the high of you
how you fill the entire room
how you make my heart race
how I melt, undeniably,
into you

I am not everything
that has happened to me.
I am everything I became
while I healed.
Stronger but softer.
Focused but not obsessed.
A teacher but still a student.
I am not broken.
I am beautiful.
I am a survivor.

She wildly dances
to the beat of her own heart
a strong and fearless protector,
she’s hauntingly beautiful
and dangerously smart.
Eyes filled with oceans
and a glimmer of pain,
but a soul with a compass
that points home
when it rains.
She’s visited darkness
and fought her way back
this girl is a warrior,
her spirit won’t crack.
A sense of humor to balance
how deep her heart bleeds,
she’s a radiant light,
that this dark world needs.
She is poised and she’s polished
but still can be rough,
she is one of a kind,
she is more than enough.

Give me you
tired and tattered
restless and weary
a heart that’s been shattered
Give me you
when you are less than tough
when you are not smiling
all your edges so rough
Give me you
when you can’t see the light
just open your heart
I will hold it so tight

Give me you.

You
are all
that I want

take me
to the center of your soul
show me where you hide
lead me to the forgotten wounds
show me the other side

show me your broken pieces
and where it hurts the most
show me all of the scariest parts
introduce me
to your ghost

take me to all of the pain
let me dive into your darkest seas
take me to your secrets
let me walk through memories

take me back to desire
and lose me there forever
swallow me inside your heart
for I will leave there
never

one day
it will be so clear –
what you thought
was the end,
was really
just the beginning.

Some doors are hidden
until we are ready
to open them.