The theme of “diamond” is something I’ve been working with as a creative project to release and comprehend some overwhelming energy and emotions.

This particular poem speaks from the center of my “human-ness,” and it reflects the series of experiences that led up to the discovery of my own sense of self.

I hear the term “awakening” on a daily basis and have read a lot of material concerning the shift of energy that’s occurring within our society. I feel this is often presented in an overly mystical fashion, in which only a few “enlightened” individuals are able to receive and fully understand its ramifications.

I write this poem for anyone who has had the courage to look conformity square in the eye and ask, “Why?”

It’s for those who have worked tirelessly to cover the grave of negativity with a generic blanket of positive thoughts—only to have it burst from the ground like a flesh-deprived zombie.

I write this for those on kale diets, who are tied up in yoga knots, and whose breathing exercises have left them oxygen deprived. For those who have re-programmed, re-wired, and lobotomized their own brain on a 21-day fix, only to again ask, “Why? Why the f*ck am I here?”

This is what awakening means to me.

When the framework of our belief systems can no longer be sustained by an outside structure. It is from within that we discover our true differences—our true uniqueness.

It is here that we build a new belief system. It is within what I have perceived as diversity in my own personal experiences that I have found a true sense of unity—for each facet and each piece represents the evolution of humanity as a whole.

Please keep asking questions—the growth and expansion of our universe depends on it.

~

Diamond.

I have been afraid
of my own voice
for a very long time.
Afraid of the truth,
of my humanity,
and of the vulnerability
that could reverberate
from my own vocal cords,
exposing all of the inadequacies
I had worked so fervently
and diligently to silence.

I have observed my own reflection
in a water-stained mirror
morph and change,
flicker and fade,
emulating every grand idea
I had of what it meant to be
beautiful.

I have searched for love
in the heart of another,
only to find my own
was already broken.

I have placed power
in the hands of another,
so I could call it strength
when it returned to me
with a vengeance.

I have been silenced
for so long,
the language is foreign.
The words have no meaning.
I am but a wanderer,
lost in the depths
of my own questioning.

It is here,
in the darkness,
that I find light.
Sound.
It is here, I find
peace,
love,
where I find acceptance.
This place
where judgements
once fell on
deaf ears and blind eyes.

It is here that I must speak—
for this voice sings
truth.
A truth that says:
life can leave us broken,
bruised and bleeding.
Fragmented,
like bits of glass.
Crushed.
Pieces of a once magnificent,
water-stained reflection.

But these fragments,
these pieces,
are really facets
of diamonds.
Brilliant, shining—
each one spectacular
in its own right.

~

Author: Natashia Newhouse
Image: Flickr/Seth Lemmons
Editor: Yoli Ramazzina
Copy editor: Molly Murphy
Social editor: Caitlin Oriel