When you see her, tell her her daughter is tired but standing.Tell her the nights are long,and sometimes morning arrives without answers,but her child still wakes up hopeful. Tell her she is gratefulfor the hands that have held her through this season.She feels them every day,even when guilt dances on her faceand she doesn’t know… Continue reading Becoming
Category: Self-Discovery
This category includes poems about personal growth, identity, self-reflection, and spirituality.
Pieces of You
Some things you can’t burynot even in the pits of helland pretend they aren’t there. Like that piece of youyou want to rip offlike Dr. Jekyll trying to kill Hyde,put it aside,and act like it was never part of you. Because truth be told,it still lives somewhere.It’s just dormant.Quiet even. And with the slightest trigger,it… Continue reading Pieces of You
Borrowed Wood
Some questions sound harmlessbecause they arrive dressed in curiosity,wearing a smile.Like asking what we bring to the table,as if we are plates,as if our worth only arrivescarrying a lid.The loud voices.The heavy expectations.I want a woman who cooks,who listens,who heals,who bends,who opens her bodylike a door that never creaks.They want a mother,a love,a counselor,a wife,and… Continue reading Borrowed Wood
Backwards – A Prose Poem on Healing and Self-worth
I wrote this poem for her — the younger me who believed the voices saying she was too much. This is the rewrite. The assurance. The gentle reclaiming.
Masked
We walk with shoulders raised to our ears,counting strides as if pride alone could carry us.Our waists swing side to side,our faces carved into smiles,the perfect image the world demands. But beneath those smiles,we hide skeletons of shame and pain,stories too heavy to tell. Sometimes I laugh when I think about my life,Other days I… Continue reading Masked
The World Listens
Date: 12th April I'm standing where silence has more answers than people ever do.The kind of silence that doesn't ask for explanations—the kind that doesn't need me to be okay,just to be.This view looks like a story I'm yet to write,or maybe, yet to read.The hills don't pity me.They aren’t trying to fix me.They just… Continue reading The World Listens
To the Lessons That Broke Me
I did not ask for you. I did not send an invitation, yet you arrived, unannounced, like a storm that steals the sun, like a whisper that turns into a scream. You came with heavy hands, shaping me with pain I never knew I could endure. You tore through my innocence, made me question the… Continue reading To the Lessons That Broke Me
Here’s To 2025
2022, 2023 had been hectic on me. When the curtains closed, I sighed. A big sigh of relief, though it's burdens and pain still lingered through 2024. As the curtains closed on 2024, I can't help but be grateful. Man! Was I grateful. 2024 surprised me. It came, not as a storm, but a gentle… Continue reading Here’s To 2025
What Makes me a Man?
They say I'm too loud,That my voice is like thunder in the quiet night,That I'm too bold for the softness I should carry.That my hands should rest, folded, waiting,As if strength isn't something I should have.They say my spirit is unruly,Too fierce for the quiet they expect.They call it disrespect,That I'm stepping out of line,Forgetting… Continue reading What Makes me a Man?
This Heart, This Brain
There comes a time when even the bravest warriors must take a step back. My heart, my proud soldier, has led the charge through my toughest of emotions. Loving, hoping and grieving. It has fought my battles with passion, bleeding in the name of love. Though I appreciate its years of service, I see the… Continue reading This Heart, This Brain
Nancy Atieno's Notes 