Barbara Jean (BJ)

Romford, UK

In 1981 my life started to change dramatically from being an unhappily married woman to being a happy fairly liberated single parent on the root to restructuring my whole life. I changed from a hairdresser to a social worker/counselor and am now 52 and on a university course to gain S.W. qualifications. During these years I have used my intense feelings and emotions to write poetry, draw and paint. I have gained insight, self awareness and self development through life experience and therapy. Through this I feel have been able to help others in the caring profession.

The Magnolia Tree

When you came into my life
All I could see and feel was strife
I had lived and lost
To my well being, such a cost

I was walking along
Chin on the ground
Mood was oh! so low
I felt so full of fear
I lifted my head to wipe away a tear

Never had I seen such beauty
The strength of how you stood
At that moment I felt so so good
Your deep pink aura I drank
Feeling lifted from the depths of which I had sank

Rooted to this very spot
I began to think of what I had really got
Within those petals of glory
I could see I had another story
Even through it had been so very bad
I did not have to be still sad

I felt I could start again
Maybe even work through the pain
At that moment in time
Life for me seemed so sublime
I was transfixed tingling all over
A realization of a future
That did not have to be torture

If I could behold your pride
There was no more reason to hide
Every spring you grow and grow
your life begins anew
I began to see that if you had this courage
I could do it too

A happier life it has been for me since I first saw your hue
Faith or fate led me to that place that day
So I could feel beautiful like you.