June Poetry Contest Entries- Week 2

We loved reading through all the new entries for June’s “Perseverance” themed poetry contest. There is still plenty of time to enter the contest, and it is open to anyone, any age, from anywhere.  One one entry per contestant will be accepted. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will receive a surprise gift bag from Global Genes. You can enter here.

While we won’t be selecting a winner until the end of the month, we will be making the entries available live, each Friday right here on the site! Here are this week’s entries:

A Diamond in the Rubble 

By Taylor Sullivan

Gnawing, Gnawing, biting on the back of your neck.
You wonder to yourself, how did this happen? Why must it end this way?
Grinding, Grinding, the scraping of your teeth.
The feeling of jealousy, of anger, and udder disbelief.
We often think to ourselves, why did this happen? Why me?
What did I do wrong? Why couldn’t it be someone else?
And I don’t think I can do this anymore.
We’ll ask ourselves these and many other similar questions
on what may seem like an infinite number of occasions throughout our lives. We’ll often struggle with the cruel truth that life is like an unending war that can never be won.
The world will often tell us that we are all alone, that we are helpless, hopeless, and without a purpose.
We exist simply because we exist and there is no reason for existence.
How can we as a society bare to live with the thought that no matter
what we do or no matter how well we live our lives, it is all pointless?
If our existence is pointless then why should we even try?
If this is true then why should we even bother to deal
with the times of struggle and hardship in our lives?
The answer is because our lives aren’t pointless.
Our existence does have purpose and reason.
The reason for which we exist is one of the most pure
and meaningful reasons for anything that has ever been done.
We live for the most noble of causes.
A cause that benefits not only ourselves but more importantly,
the One who created us.
We live to bring glory and thanks for all that has happened in our lives, good or bad.
Little do we realize it, but even the hardships in our lives occur for a reason.
The struggles aren’t there only as a hindrance, but to help us grow. It is through these hardships, disappointments, and times of desperation in our lives
that we have the opportunity to grow and become better, more godly people.
All things in this life work together for our good.
Our God works in mysterious ways that we often times will not understand or be capable of grasping the true benevolence of.
It may be sad, upsetting, or depressing when we run into these hard times,
but with each new issue we run into we have the opportunity to come
to the Lord with our struggle for newfound strength and endurance.
The Lord always has and always will be there for us through every moment of our lives.
We may not always be able to see him being involved in our lives at all times,
but this isn’t due to him being absent.
The Lord is always there, always present,
and always taking action in matters of this world.
Although things may not always end the way that we would
personally desire for them to, we need to accept the end result and
acknowledge that it has happened for a reason,
and that no matter how bad it may seem at face value,
if we look at what has occurred through the eyes of God,
we will find that there is always a diamond buried in the pile of rubble in our lives.

___________________________

Wracked Poem

By Chris DiSpina
Wracked with ailments I can’t explain
Half my life has been in pain
What guilt has charged me with this curse?
Into hell my life immersed.

Affected on a daily basis
Blades from scalpels leaving Traces
Scars and horror my parting gift
From this, good I need to lift.

Begins my journey inside my mind
Hoping wisdom that I will find
What did I do to deserve
This terribly unwelcome curve

Was it something I brought about
On myself without a doubt.
A punishment to fit the crime
Confer My sentence for all time.

What was real I did not know
Gradually it began to show
Benefits to my condition
Negative turned to fruition.

Hindrance need not weigh you down
Learn to manage what you own
Obstacles can be your prize
Believe in self and you will rise.

The way things go is how you take it
Make your choice to fail or make it.
Never give up, you’re all you’ve got
Keep on trying, success or not.

___________________________

Life Worth Living
by Jamie McLanahan
Those two pink lines can change her world;
But so can a doctor with a few simple words.
“Abnormal” and “rare” will scare an expectant mother to death;
But she knows she’ll fight for her baby until her last breath.
Being a special needs mother is no easy task;
Putting herself first is a thing of the past.
She becomes an advocate and learns to persevere;
Her child has come first since the day she’s been here.
As a mother, she’s always fighting and constantly giving;
Because her child was given life and that life is worth living.

___________________________

Chronic Rarity

By Michele Renee Renaud

What are the genes that dictate conditions known as rare?
Chronically positioned to interfere with those who persevere.

Is the rarity that hides behind birth right of pains, ever truly concealed?
Perhaps this is a life endured, born to continue plowing through the field.

Conditions of good health remarkable in the struggle to persist,
Surrounded by a lying mind that concludes it cannot resist.

Predisposition always co-exist with genetics unfounded,
Borders without clear indications blurred among the compounded.

One gene, two genes, three genes more
Disease keeps on knocking at every doctors door.

Rare is not rare when conclusion meets its fate
When consistent research is a little too little, a lot too late.

Take these genetics and put them behind
the place where they cannot be confined.

With every diagnosis followed by a medical bill,
Is a growing determined life without the pursuit of free will.

RNA DNA Who factors in the change
Cellular malfunctioning – not normal in range

Defining chronic illness as abnormal in normality
Appears with simple informality of reality without vitality

Body fighting against itself to be healed
With flesh whose core is a faulty shield

Hesitating to resonate with the tendency of giving in,
Hope reveals hidden strengths to capture the final win.

Character to ignore the supposed inability
Crushing the sickness of worn vulnerability

Science cannot provide something to those who cannot see
That the greatest physician is God above who created me.