Answer to Our Youth

by Dennis O’Brien

Poem


Our Lonely Death

by George Nolta

Poem


Somewhere a Woman Is Building an Ark

by Louise Eisenbrandt

Poem


Waves of Life

by Michele Johnson

Poem


The Nurses and Staff of My VA Hospital

by Jeffrey Saarela

Poem


Retail Blues

by Lynn Norton

Poem


The Promise

By Nila Bartley, Navy

Writing Type: Poem

By Nila K. Bartley

VA Medical Center—Chillicothe, OH

 

Once I was in a sea of sorrow. 

For me, I thought there would be no tomorrow. 

 

Drowning, I was caught in a huge wave.

Your kindness was there to save.

 

No longer did I think of suicide. 

With the life raft you gave me, on life's waters

I glide.

 

I am now free,

To hope, to dream, just to be.

 

A future I look forward to since I have been freed,

And you are the ones that planted the seed. 

 

I now have the promise of what life may hold 

And look forward to, even when the voices

in my head scold.

 

The delusion was in control,

But the freedom I feel now goes down to my soul.

 

I have all this and more because you cared

How a fellow human being you didn't even know

fared.

 

I have reached life's watery bank, 

And I have all of you to thank.

 

But saying thank you does not address 

How to express--

 

Putting me back on the right track,

The gift of giving me my life back.

 

I owe a debt I can never repay, 

Not now or any other day. 

 

Because of you, I am on the mend.

I can only try and repay you by being

your friend. 

 

Metamorphosis of the Mind

by Shon Pernice

Prose


That Look

by David Marchant

Poem


The Nurses and Staff of My VA Hospital

by Jeffrey Saarela

Poem


Empty

by Michelle Pond

Photograph


Retail Blues

by Lynn Norton

Poem


Purple Heart

by John Swainston

Poem