“Myself in Urban Chasos” by Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen, won first place in Cyndi MacMillan’s Contemporary Figurative Artiste Stephanie Deshpande in Contemporary Free Rhyme Poetry Contest on PoetrySoup.com. Her poem was inspired by my painting “Sleeping Child.” To see all the contest winners, see related post: Contemporary Free Rhyme Poetry Contest.

MYSELF IN URBAN CHAOS
By Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen

Here I go again, focused on myself.
Remembering, analyzing,
Memorializing tragedy.
Thinking, endless thinking.
Suicides, death of grandmas, past loves.
Pining about passions and losses.
The condo I had to let go.
The jobs I left behind.
And the cemetery lots.
My mind wonders around in circles.
From darkness to darkness, city to city,
Job to job, decision to decision
My children, I embrace with love.
Those years riddled with joys and pains.
Trying, always trying,
Yet, still disappointed.
Clinging to religion, remembering God.
Accepting –
Then, the child in me curls up
Safe in my warm cocoon,
And I think of you in the next room.
Life made new, fear subdued.
The touch of your hand, my confidence renews.
That forever love so long wanted, found at last.
The pressures I once knew moved to the past.
To the outside world I say adieu.
I was lost in the hollow of myself.
Outside of myself, I found peace.
Memories blot out urban chaos
And focus on woodland happy days.
Struggles not so painful anymore.
Peace found its hope in you.
…And then, we spoon.

Copyright Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen, January 15, 2014