Fragments Rising

Mercy Roberts

Description

Justice rises one word at a time. Bare. Stripped. Exposed. Relentless. Fragments Rising is an evocative memoir in free verse that captures pure strength of spirit and the power of a gentle heart that has reached a moment of grace, safe enough to speak at all, and at last.

For all of those sitting in shadows of sorrow,
unsure of stepping into the light,
of being seen,
feeling flawed,
unaware of your pure worth,
warding off consuming darkness
that distorts and suffocates:
I see you.
I hear you.
I reach out my hand to you.
Please take it,
walk with me.

Mercy Roberts believes that touching one soul changes the landscape of the world. Emotion is her first, most fluent, and favorite language. She writes to give voice to those locked in fragile, traumatized silence.

In this collection of free verse, Mercy not only shares a moving glimpse into her relationships with men, but also provides an unflinching exploration through childhood trauma and far beyond. She illuminates the vulnerability and power of one voice as it rises to find a path to healing.

Justice rises one word at a time. Bare. Stripped. Exposed. Relentless. Fragments Rising is an evocative memoir in free verse that captures pure strength of spirit and the power of a gentle heart that has reached a moment of grace, safe enough to speak at all, and at last.

Sujets

• Vie de famille
• Soutien psychologique et conseils familiaux
• Relationships
• Domestic violence
• Sexual abuse
• Memoir
• Relationship
• Poetry
• Trauma

Informations

• Publié par: Balboa Press
• Date de parution: 05 avril 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798765238486
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Fragments Rising
Remembering All the Men I Thought I Loved
Mercy Roberts


Copyright © 2023 Mercy Roberts.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
Balboa Press
A Division of Hay House
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.balboapress.com
844-682-1282
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
ISBN: 979-8-7652-3847-9 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-7652-3849-3 (hc)
ISBN: 979-8-7652-3848-6 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023901627
 
Balboa Press rev. date: 04/04/2023
Contents
Memoir
My First Memory
The Gift of Language
I Must Be a Princess
Maybe Deaf
No Happily Ever After
To All the Men I Thought I Loved
Permission to Not Love
To All the Boys
The First Boy Who Taught Me About Kissing
The Four-Year-Old Who Forced His Rightness
To the Boy Who Was My Friend
Forced to Hug
The Ringleader
Tissue Paper Butterfly Thief
To the Man in the Magenta Car
Linoleum Mishap Miracle
Had You Not Been There
Horror Movie Nightmares
Back Rubs Part 1
Dear Mr. 3 rd Grade Teacher
Dear Pediatrician
The Adventures of Georgina and Bertha
Another Lie
Back to Normal School
A New Solution
First Party
To This Boy Next Door
More Back Rubs
So Long, Grandpa, Never Good-bye
First Summer Without My Grandpa
My Summer Birthday
The Boy Who Died
The Best Boy Friend Who Was Not a Boyfriend
That Night at the Party
One Thought With Scissors
Going Our Separate Ways
To All the Teen Guys
My First Kiss at Summer Camp
Another Boy Who Did Not Kiss Me
My Teacher
Tonsil Attack
Bliss to Blunder
Not So Sweet Sixteen
Wanting to Be Liked Like That
The Flaw of Seeing Good
Still More Back Rubs
I Do Not Like Math
The Summer I Turned Seventeen
Dancing
The Boy Who Picked Me
There Was Another
On Crutches I Found My Voice
Painting With Words
A Fellow Injured
Laughter
The Story That Touched My Heart
The One Who Gave Me My Name
I Found the Voice of God in Dolphins
The Aftermath
Long Distance: Not Sustainable
Dreams of Being Saved
If Shivering, It Must Be Cold
Something Felt Wrong
Clued-in or Clueless
Senior Year Hell
Another Waited in the Wings
First High School Dance
ER Twilight Zone
Stepping Back Into My World
Later That Same Morning
Spring Break of Porn Movies
Creative Connection
Another Betrayal
Did I Look Different
Why I Stayed
The Last Back Rub
The Letter
To All the Men
The Poor Unfortunate Rebound
Did We Even Have Sex
Warm Coat
Raw Revelation
The One Who Tried to Get Through
One Date
The Rape Crisis Center
Comfortable Best Friend
Dysfunctional Disco
The Night It Started
The Doctor Who Stayed
Too Young to Not Live
No One Believed Me
One Tender Moment
Losing Myself in Love
Missing My Teddy Bear
The One I Kicked Out
Only the Unwanted Would Want Me
A College Graduate With No Opportunities
Handed My First Job
A Regret That Lingers
Friend Now Boyfriend Limbo
Density of Grief
Avenging Myself
Short Lived Victory
So Many Bad Dates
Shaggy
Fleeting Angel
Runny Noses Must Be a Sign
Word Master
The One I Loved Loving
The Kiss of All Kisses
In the Moment
Not Being Loved Back
The Night We Parted
Taking My Power Back
Stepping Into Change
The Jack of All Trades
The Gentle B E A S T
Oddly Insecure
Divorcé
Two Doctors Who Gave Me Nightmares
Unsuspected No Thief
I Thought We Were Friends
The Guy From the Party
To the One that Wasn’t
Phone Call
The Meeting
The First Kiss
Odd Date
Blind Love
Expert
Consenting to Harm
Your Birthday
Silent Violence Part 1
Losing My Power Without Knowing
Pain Tolerance
Two Hours Away
A Beginning, an End
Why We Lasted
Sculpting
Crazy-Making 101
Our Recurring Dialogue
Autopilot
No I Love You’s
Learning Your Language
Be My Wife
Let the Battle Begin
Invisible Bride
Not So Honeymoon
Dancing on Eggshells
You
Serial Killer Sex
Impending Infertility
Miracle #1
Not So Pretty Reality
Priorities
Life Changer
Meeting My Soulmate
Three Weeks of Almost Bliss
Sleep Deprivation Insanity
Finding Gratitude
Truths That Splashed
Backwards
The Simple Yet Criticized Solution
Beautiful Baby
More
The One That Was Not Meant to Be
ER Fiasco
The Only Two to Not Get It
Advice That Helped and Didn’t
Letting Go of Anger
Smitten
More Than Twice the Work
A House With No Foundation
Two Special Kids
Earning My Keep
Why I Hate Mother’s Day
My Raging Vagina
Turning Forty
Another Experiment
And So We Fell
The Surface
Silent Violence Part 2
Lawyers Think Differently
Off and Running
The Reptile Shed His Sheep Costume
My Wish
Winless War
Witness to Your Grief
I Was Warned
That Day
Sam
Not Prepared
Needing Help, No Help Offered
Why
I Am Sorry
Fantasies
View Within the Courthouse
Free to Be
The Week After the Kids and I Moved Out
Eighteen Months and $87K Down the Drain
My Opal Necklace
Not My Prettiest
The Casualties of Custody
Wednesdays
The Truth
On the Day of the Final Judgment
Stranger
I Was Wrong
Precious Moments
So Many Landlords
If Only
Lingering Pieces
Support the Right People
To All the Other Men
Viscosity of Love
Single Mom Dating
Were You Ever My Friend
I Give Back Your Blame
The Aftershocks of a Mind Fuck
Cult Leader
Online Dating After 40
Your Hands
I Am More
The Liar
The Chatterbox
The Misogynist With the Landing Strip
Mr. Logic
Drummer Boy
The New Age Guru
Here I Am Again
From 0 to 100 to 0
Dear Drippy Man
Here’s the Deal
Dear Mr. Dick Pic
Lesson Wrapped in a Sprinkle
To The One I Felt Attracted To
To the Man Who Looked Like a Turtle
Just Like the Others
The Wounded One
The Angry Entitled Man Who Considered Himself Open and Consciousness
The Avoid-dance
To the Last One
Disconnected Connection
Closing a Door
Thirty Years and Fourteen Doctors Later
Silent Contract
To the Next Man
And Now
 
Acknowledgments
About the Author

For all of those sitting in shadows of sorrow,
unsure of stepping into the light,
of being seen,
feeling flawed,
unaware of your pure worth,
warding off consuming darkness
that distorts and suffocates:
I see you.
I hear you.
I reach out my hand to you.
Please take it,
walk with me.
I am scared of the sound of my voice as I tell my stories,
afraid of the sometimes-ugly words vibrating on the page.
Terrified of being seen in my raw vulnerability,
I retreat within myself.
My warm smile conceals
tears that flow backwards,
only to flood when I am alone in my car
or in the bathroom,
and I fear speaking honestly in the same breath.
I know it is time
to smash the cycle to dust,
to use my voice to share.
I do it for you.
I do it for me.
Memoir
The emotional essence of experiences,
not hard facts,
a collage of images scattered
on the page,
 
this following collection
of memories is
my emotional anthology
told my way:
my words,
my interpretations,
my lived experiences.
 
These happenings
did not occur in solitude.
Others who wove through
most definitely
would depict their own impressions
distinct from mine.
 
We all experience life uniquely.
We may live through identical events
yet have experiences that vary in every detail:
we pay attention to separate aspects
or to the same aspects differently,
our individual capabilities,
our custom-designed skill sets,
our senses,
comprehend life,
each creating meaning differently.
It is part of the magic
of being human.