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Three poems in this new anthology of poems on living with and living alongside mental illness.

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When you burn from within...

When you burn from within...


Starburst

      for Cindy


On the days when the headaches come,

an entire galaxy is in flames

behind her eyes, between her temples.

Not one ounce more will fit into

the cosmos of pain, throbbing, ringing.

No thought, no comfort can penetrate.

The universe – sore inside her mind –

shrivels up, desiccates and hardens

‘til the sour black coal burns itself cool.







In support of The Midnight Special, Folkstage, Studs Terkel Archives and Classical music atWFMT. Donate at www.wfmt.org

This poem originated at the Salem Athenaeum...Nathaniel Hawthorne's old hangout. Today it's a haven for new writers. Show your support:  http://salemathenaeum.net/support/donations/


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We Will Not be Silenced IndieBlu(e) Poetry Anthology... contains three of my poems and hundreds of others by writers I admire. Now in print and Kindle on amazon.com.


Subtitled "The Lived Experience of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault Told Powerfully through Poetry, Prose, Essay and Art," this book is neither screed nor pity party. Rather, it’s a positive, powerful platform to give voice to people who have been sexually exploited, abused, treated as invisible.Listen and believe them.

Click for a short video:

Marilyn Rea Beyer Poetry

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This one hit me observing my city hit by COVID-19

The Disappearing Man or Resist the Inevitable

The disappearing man did not select his fate.

It was no vanishing act

intended to impress.

He wished to remain intact

to arise and bathe and dress,

to chalk in another square, mark off just one more date.


Sudden stilled Earth would like to continue to turn.

What a clumsy sleight of hand,

beyond the angels’ touch,

bent under the gods’ demand

for pestilences and such,

that bade humanity embrace the ashen urn.


You, be fierce. Defy the sanitary dying.

Stand upon on your balcony

and shout and cheer and sing.

Rise up in cacophony.

Make the invisible ring.

Be seen to have courage. Be heard to be living.


©Marilyn Rea Beyer

Also: Follow the strong words of strong women in Whisper and the Roar. Two of my poems were published during June '18. Click on the poem titles to read To Live Like Shakespeare and I Never Feared Death.

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