My poetry is who I am in a nutshell. It is pieces of my soul spilled out on paper for all to see. I have kept a journal since the age of nine and have been writing poetry since the age of thirteen. As a result, I write about absolutely everything. Running themes in my poetry tend to be my faith, my loved ones, my struggle with mental and physical illnesses, and how I deal with life’s ups and downs. I tried to include poetry in this collection that captured me at various points in my life. “Princess” is about what it means to be a daughter of Christ. “Purple” is my response to the “I wear purple because…” blog movement that happens every February to support eating disorders awareness. “A Poem Addressed to Heaven” is a simple letter in poetic form to a dearly loved aunt. “Dear Alecia” is a thank you note to one of my favorite performers, Pink. Her music is helping me heal. “Me” tells both the story of how I began writing and my newfound fascination with the art of spoken word and performance poetry.
“Beautiful Princess” is another statement of my faith and God’s view of me. I will be getting the title of this poem tattooed on my wrists tomorrow. The last two poems were inspired by the spoken word poem “Ten Things I Want to Say to a Black Woman” by Joshua Bennett. After watching it, I wrote a poem for each of my siblings, staying close to Bennett’s original format. Because of my personal struggle with mental illness, I have a passion for psychology. I hope to become a therapist. I’ll be returning to school in the fall after my power wheelchair is fixed to finish my associate’s degree. I currently work from home as a freelance book reviewer for a mental health website.
#63 PRINCESS
I am a princess
A beautiful, prized jewel in the Eyes of my Father-
The King
My Father loves without limit
Without measurement
Without doubt
He will love me
Until the end of time and back again
Throughout everything I have ever done
Or ever will do
He loves me not because I have earned it
But simply because I am His
I am a princess
A precious little lady
Who is meant for greatness
I can come to my Father
Any time of day or night
No matter the thoughts
Weighing on my mind
I am a princess
Who has been given gifts
Meant just for me
No one else in the world has the exact gifts I do
My Father loves me that much
I am that precious
I am a princess
I am part of the largest kingdom the world has ever seen
My Father told me and my brothers and sisters
To tell you about Him
His name is Jesus
I am a princess
A beautiful, prized jewel in the eyes of my Father-
The King
And you can be His princess too
Fallon Marie
#177 Purple Feb. 8, 2013
I wear purple because
It’s my favorite color
It makes me feel beautiful
It’s the color of royalty
And I am God’s princess
Because October isn’t just breast cancer awareness month
It’s also domestic violence awareness month
But you see
Almost no one talks about that
Because the injuries of
Two million American women annually and
Countless more violent assaults on men
By people who are supposed to love them
That go unreported
Somehow get buried under a flood of pink ribbons
Every
Single
Year
Wearing purple is a silent way to say
That I stand with the victims and survivors of abuse
That they are not alone
That I survived it too
That abuse of any kind is not okay
That life can go on afterward
That Real Love Doesn’t Hurt
Purple and periwinkle are eating disorders awareness colors
And apparently
February is eating disorders awareness month
I wear purple to remind myself
That I’m stronger than the eating disorder in my head
I wear it for
Megan
Skyler
Derek
Maggie
And so many more
For all those on my DailyStrength support group
Who haven’t yet found the courage to post
You
Are
Not
Alone
Never have been
Never will be
I wear it because
The BMI is bull
God did not build us to fit
Into neatly prepackaged scientifically calculated boxes
We are people
Not projects
I wear purple because what Demi said is true
Love really is louder
Than the pressure to be perfect
Fallon Marie
#148 A Poem Addressed to Heaven
I miss you so much this time of year
I see you in those pretty seasonal tops with leaves all over them
I can’t help smiling when I see all those Halloween and Christmas crafts in stores
And I have to wonder
If God made you Head Seamstress and Head Decorator in Heaven
Cause your house was always the coolest on the block
I see you smiling whenever I watch
The Nightmare Before Christmas
And Hocus Pocus
What are you doing up there?
Do you miss me?
Are you watching over me?
I hope so
At least I like to think so
How are Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Kenny?
Is Uncle Ken Heaven’s head chef?
Has God tasted his pineapple upside down cake yet?
I miss you more than words or poems or songs could ever say
Keep singing
And please don’t forget to remember me, Aunt Kathy
I know I’ll never stop remembering you
Love,
Fallon
Fallon Marie
#!37 Dear Alecia
Dear Alecia,
Oh how I wish I could find you and say thank you
You dare to sing the things I can never say
Sometimes, I feel like you’ve peeked into my
Dear Diary
And set it to music
Putting it on the radio
And thus healing my broken heart and sad soul
Dear Alecia
You have no idea how many times
I dreamed of being a Runaway
And chasing the painful memories from my mind
Dear Alecia
You should know
Your honest lyrics give me a way to show
How I feel when all the world is still
And all I can hear
Is the EDNOS monster screaming in my ear
Dear Alecia
You should know
That “Perfect” is my happy song
Someday
I’ll get it inked on me
In hot pink
And look at it daily
Till the moment I believe
That I am truly made in the
Perfect
Image of my Heavenly Father
I’ve lost count of how many times
Perfect
Has helped me finish a meal
Dear Alecia
I’m sure I’m not the first to say
You penned the undisputed anthem
For broken-hearted ,kids everywhere
When you sang “Family Portrait”
Thank you
For giving my 9 year old self a voice
Years after I first felt that pain
Dear Alecia,
Thanks for your sassy honesty
Your refusal to be someone you’re not
And for showing me that the best woman I can be
Is the one God made me to be
Fallon Marie
#175 Me (A Musician’s Introduction to Spoken Word Poetry) Feb.8, 2013
How did I miss this?
How did I miss this?
How did I catch
Shakespeare and Austen and Angelou
And Dickens and Maguire and Anderson
And Lowe and Lerner, Hammerstein, Rogers and Webber
But forgot to find the magic that’s made
When poetry and theatre come together?
How did some English teacher somewhere not see
That this art form was made for me?
Fallon Marie
Me who never, ever, stops singing
Me who likes to answer the question
“How long have you been singing?”
With another question
“How long have you been breathing?”
Because I have no memory of life
Before melodies moved me to the core of my soul
Me who was barely old enough to know
What a story was
Before I was putting pen to paper
And writing my own
Me who was raised on
The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Oklahoma!, and My Fair Lady
Me who Mom says as a baby
Danced in my high chair
Every premature, Cabbage Patch dress wearing inch of me
Danced in a high chair to MTV
At 13, I wrote my first piece of poetry
At 14, my choir director said she’d publish me
On the back of the choir program
So how is it that it took ten years
For spoken word to find me?
How is it that I missed the music in this type of poetry?
How spoken word and I always missed each other
Is a mystery
But now that we know of each other’s existence
I feel like I’ve found a heavenly muse
Because in the eight days since my spoken word discovery
I have written four new pieces of poetry
Four new “stories”
According to Phil Kaye
And I think maybe
Just maybe
I can do this
Maybe, just maybe
I can perform my poetry
Maybe the musician
Who became the writer
Who became the poet
Can swallow her fears and insecurities
And show the world
Pieces of her very soul
Maybe, just maybe
I can show the world
Me
Fallon Marie
#161 Beautiful Princess Dec. 17, 2012
Sometimes, I write the words on my skin
In purple pen
Or Disney marker
Till I’ve stared at it long enough
To believe God when He says
It is who I am
And what He sees
When He looks at me
Not Ariel
Not Jasmine
But a real life
Flesh and blood
Princess
Royalty
In the Kingdom of Heaven
And the eyes of Jesus Christ
I have no jewels
Or golden crown
But what I do have is worth so much more
A place in the King’s heart all my own
He chose me
He wants me
He loves me
ME
Who has been broken in too many ways to count
He wanted me
He said He loved me
Purposefully chose me in my brokenness
In my struggle with mental illness
Disability
And past hurts
He still wants me
And still calls me His
Beautiful
Princess
Fallon Marie
#185 Ten Things I Want to Say to Bryan March 24, 2013
One
I love the way your entire being lights up
When you play with a dog
As if God Himself just flicked on the joy switch in your soul
Two
I wish I could bottle your laugh
Save it for the moments when I’ve forgotten how happy sounds
Or maybe give parts of it away
To people lost in depression’s black abyss
So they’ll never forget
Happiness sounds like this
Three
I love the way you look in your Army uniform
So tall, so proud, so grown up
Every bit the man and soldier you are
Ready to suit up and go to war
Whenever God or duty or country calls
No matter the cost
Four
I love that at twenty
You have more maturity
Than most people do at forty
Five
I love your passion for Jesus Christ and His Word
How a Bible is never more than mere inches from your reach
And how eager you are to lead
Others to the Lord and His life-giving truth
Six
I love your quick wit and quick mind
And how you’ve never allowed either to make you arrogant or haughty
Seven
I love how you see a problem and go
“How can I help?
What can I do?
How can I be a apart of the solution?”
Eight
I love how your tough exterior melts away
At the sight of a trusted friend in trouble
Or Casey in a dress
I love how your sweet soft-heartedness is there
Transparent for all to see
Nine
I love how some things never change
How I can still buy you comic books and video games for Christmas and birthdays
How when sunlight catches your smile in just the right way
I can still see the energetic little boy
Under the man in front of me
Ten
Before I forget
This is important
I love you, Bryan Robert Kunz
You’re the best little brother in all the world
Read this again
If you ever need reminded
Of just how loved you are
And what an honor is
To be your big sister
I am so very proud of you
Fallon Marie
Inspired by “Ten Things I Want to Say to a Black Woman” by Joshua Bennett
#186 Ten Things I Want to Say to Kayla March 27, 2013
One
I wish I could bottle your excitable energy and enthusiasm
And give it away to the throngs of tired parents in the world
Nobody would need Starbuck’s anymore
The world would run on Kaylatricity
Two
I admire your refusal to be anything less
Than exactly who you are
And how you use
Every avenue God gave you
To express yourself and your creativity
Three
I love how art
In all its forms
Permeates your very soul
How you are your own canvas
Your hair
Your clothes
Your makeup palette
Changes with your mood
And your creative flow
I love how God took music and film and drawing and anime
And mixed them all together
To create the blood that runs in your veins
Four
Everyone who sees them
Is impressed by the drawings in my kitchen
You are so talented
Your art is worthy of its own gallery
Don’t argue with me about this
You know it’s true
Five
I love how you never shut people out
You celebrate differences
Encourage uniqueness
And do your best to show your friends Jesus
The world would be a better, happier place
With more people like you in it
Six
I love how you’re almost sixteen
But you’re still Kayla
So you’re never too cool
To go to the Disney Store with me
And how all you want to do when you spend the night
Is watch Disney movies and classic musicals
And talk
Seven
I love how you never apologize
For the gospel of Jesus Christ
Instead, you try to be the best example of His unconditional love
Your friends have ever seen
Eight
I’m so proud of the young woman you’re growing into
You’re compassionate, loving, a good listener
And a fabulous sister
Nine
I love your appreciation for the classics
Your love of The Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, and Audrey Hepburn
Is proof you possess an old soul, Kayla Renee
And I wouldn’t have it any other way
Ten
I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this
But you are an answer to a prayer
When I was six
I asked God for a little sister
Three years later, God gave me you
You are my favorite blessing
And one of my dearest friends
Fallon Marie
Inspired by “Ten Things I Want to Say to a Black Woman” by Joshua Bennett
