Featured Poetry Bettina I’ve tried to run

I’ve tried to run

I’ve tried to run
from suburb to city,
to mountains and sea,
from father and mother
to husband,
son and daughter.
I hold memories of
passing moments like clouds,
dissolving,
shrinking,
fading,
losing their colour,
like used garments,
all turning to sand running through my fingers.
I hold nothing,
my hands are empty.
I am left with just myself.
There is no outer place to run to,
all roads return to me.

2003

– –

Poems chosen from an anthology of poems called ‘For Crying Out Loud – Voice of an Exile’, published early 2016.

Bettina

Bettina John von Freyend-Peterseil was born at the end of the 2nd World War in Germany. She exiled herself early on, travelling the world, never able to settle anywhere for long. She now lives in the West of Ireland, where she and her husband built their home, raised their children and tended the land. She has been teaching, writing and in the past 15 years creating her collage work.

The poetry compilation ‘For Crying Out Loud- voice of an exile’ comes at a time when globally people are forced to move on a large scale. Bettina offers a personal account of the mindset of a self imposed exile. She reveals her disconnection and her longing to belong mirroring a world also steeped in separation.

Ouevre

Still children seeking their way home

Poetry by Bettina

We are grown people we claim. To prove it our lips form a tight line, our faces show wrinkles which remind us of years of living, striving, surviving, crying after...

There is a time

Poetry by Bettina

There is a time to hang on and a time to let go. Now is the letting go time, the ending time, leaving the shore time, handing over my will...

Lakishma 2

Poetry by Bettina

I have grown old and tired. My hair turned white over years of longing and reaching for Lakishma. I have looked for Lakishma around every corner and beneath every stone....

View all Works by this Author

Anthology

Glass rose

Poetry by Simran

you used to use your thorns to protect the glass casing that you were in from breaking but soon your fragile shell was shattered and the shards of glass pierced...

Flow

Poetry by Arwa Qutbuddin

The calm invades me Like a storm embracing the ocean And revving it up into waves of lucid madness Deep down in this wondrous space of salt and seaweed I...

Held

Poetry by Arwa Qutbuddin

Held By earth By the realness of existence And all its illusions By warm stars in a fragrant night By shadows of clouds and torn leaves Held By the roots...