Inspiring Women: Jessica Kristie: Journey through poetry

I’ve read Jessica’s blog and poems for a while now and what inspires me is the life journey that she records and transforms through her writing and with many voices.

Jessica’s motto is: “Poetry is my heart, anchors my soul, and documents my journey.” Next to these words on her site is the following cluster: “Learn Forgive Grow Hope Remember Love.” Quite a constellation of life directions, isn’t it? Or again in Jessica’s words, confronted with death, “Living – is where we find our verse.”

Especially facing painful memories:

"The sounds of each letter find their way to a piece of me –
I have been trying to forget." (Shades of You and Me)

"I beg for revolving doors.
Pain in: my journey in life.
Pain out: to grow and change." (Love Letter)

At the same time, appreciation for connection with others in pain:

"In an instant you breathe hope

while standing still in this suffocation.

Restoring my soul

and making me

intimately whole.

With no hesitation you breathe love.

Bringing back my estranged comfort.

Reminding me of who I can be."

(Hidden Hero)

When pain seems unending and change seems impossible:

“When I get up from this bed – all the pain,
it will,

still be there.”

(Empty)

“Change becomes the expectation
When reality plays out

It is only the exception”

(A Day Like Any Other)

Then there is the realization that change must come from within and through action:

“We Walk on Water”

"Down on bended knee, as my bluest aqua blue,

reminds me of a bitter truth -

I must change."

“Tragedy’s Room”

"Today I want to put skin around my words,

turn sentences into limbs,

and reach across the seas."

Also from “We Walk on Water”

"What a masterpiece I have created in my soul’s foliage.

It is shaped of stars with scented breezes."

"Today is the day you make a mark. Change. Years go by in moments and death replaces life. Today is the day you fix this. There is an expiration date that for this moment has been delayed, but someday, we will be out of appeals. Live. Now."

Similarly, not only changing moving forward but changing the past and how we see it, “What we think we know will halt us in our tracks, but when we move in the water as smooth as dolphins – our history can change.” (Eyes Wide Open)

Jessica’s dramatic and heartfelt first poetry collection, Dreaming in Darkness, will soon be followed by a second, Threads of Life, evidently exploring dysfunctional relationships. Jessica’s generosity to fellow artists and writers on parallel journeys is also evident from her Inspiring Ink series the open mic poetry reading she’s hosting.

Keep writing, Beautiful Butterfly, you’re something else.