Author: heatherpound

i really should expect it by now,
but each and every year it takes me by surprise
as i unwrap the little trumpeting angels
carved with love and hung upon ribbons of scarlet 
and place them on the tree

one for each of my family, 
our names scrawled on the bottom
in my father’s own hand.

[and in that moment
grief arrives with her bittersweet bands
and wraps them around my chest
as i remember him.]

and am reminded how
i took them to calcutta
and purchased a tiny tree simply for them 
because we had no extra space
when our youngest was only seven

and i remember his giggles and grins and how 
he would climb onto laps often

my littlest one who’s still here
but is grown and understandably
is not to be cuddled often.

[and in that moment
grief arrives with her bittersweet bands
and wraps them around my chest
as i remember him.]

then i think of my other babes too,
grown up and off on their own,
three more sets of eager, small hands 
that would decorate the tree

adoring who they currently are, but missing 
what used to be.

[and in that moment
grief arrives with her bittersweet bands
and wraps them around my chest
as i remember them.]

and i breathe and reflect, isn't it marvellous
to have precious ones to miss.
memories stored up to treasure,
nostalgic  in times like these?

and i would never trade the ache right now 
for love to have never been....

then while the bands of both bitter and sweet
flex and stretch on repeat,
i plug in the cable to light up the tree

and the angels
carved by my father’s loving hands
catch the light once again.

heather pound 2025

 i forgot to pause 
and watch the leafy palm fronds 
as sea breeze blew 
and made them wave towards passing birds 
chorusing the dawn. 

and i neglected to notice 
the way sunshine warmed
my hungry skin in spring,
or to breath  in slow 
the fragrance of rain  
mingling with earth.

and yet i remember 
wondering why 
the world had turned grey there
for a bit.

isn’t that peculiar?


heather pound 2025

Photo by Harshil Gudka on Unsplash

you know what it’s like to be shaken.
there were days and days you’ve been unsure
when you’ve walked through fire,
danger nipping heels

yet even then, even in those moments
something stood up in your heart, 
a line not to be crossed,
a barrier you would not 
allow to be broken  

when a force arose and said,
no. not this. enough.
no further.

i know for a fact, my friend
that this—is courage.

but remember that the times 
you’ve felt the sweetest kiss of spring
well up within your soul
and words of beauty escaped your lips
with joy unbridled, waterfalls of overflowing
 
you may not know it yet, 
but leaning into this
even when you know that darkness
all too well exists— this is courage too. 

courage resists the dark
but is equally detectable 
by participating 
in the light 

heather pound 2025

it wasn’t that you had done far, far too much
for way, way too long 

that burnout inched up closer…and closer… 
until it charged 
and l-e-a-p-t 
and hobbled you unexpected.

it wasn’t what you did at all
but what you did not do.

when you didn’t acknowledge the ache
lingering beside your heart
and thought if you disregarded it, 
it would one day slip away. 

when you did not notice your natural
human needs growing and piling up 
until they were an unsteady tower, precarious.

when you didn’t listen as your mind and body
grew increasingly unsettled, unfocused
distracted by the chaos of ‘busy’ instead.

so, pause, 
turn towards your heart with courage
recognise your urgent needs
and listen to your helpful body’s request
for calm

if not this instant, today.

        —burnout is not about excessive outward production,
    	    it is dysregulation and all of those niggling internal cues
 	    you’ve ceased to see. trust me, making adjustments now
	    is waaaaay easier than coming back from burnout. 

the morning of the launch of my book
was like the day of my wedding
where I’d focused on planning the celebration ahead
for days and weeks before 

but on the daybreak of, i realised 
this was a time where things near and dear
to my heart, things most precious and cherished 
would be on display 

and the vulnerability of this 
well, it made me shake.

quite literally on the day that i wed 
as i posed for photos and the muscles of my smile
trembled and i had to frequently pause and breathe
to get the photos we wanted 
and the photographer wisely said
let’s just take a silly one and we pulled funny faces instead.

i love that photo still since it’s just me and my kids
letting the ‘proper’ slip and our inner weirdness out
and isn’t that vulnerable too? 

another favorite of that day is when we were caught
the six of us in our first official family hug, unplanned, unnoticed 
affection on display, exposed
a couple across an ocean now wed
four fatherless children held by strong arms.

and it was the moment when i was 
reading out poems from my beloved book
and the faces watching began to respond
and i saw the words that were mine
connecting with them, that i remembered 
vulnerability is nearly always worth it.

heather pound 2025

Photo by Jeremy Podborny

a morsel of wisdom is worth
every wrinkle upon your face,
grey hair above your head.

she is the blanket soft, yet fierce
of those who have wandered long enough 
to realise that even when 
she instructs you walk a path 
more rugged than you’d choose,
that her advice is worth it.

she is a warm and velvet comfort 
that rests upon your skin,
yet more watchful, protective, honest  
than any kind of armour polished
you used to strive to wear.

life with her is peaceful, pure
more than you ever comprehended
when your simple, constant default
was to take the easy road 

and all the things you gathered 
when you were merely young 
and have needed to unlearn

were worth every tear you shed
as you leaned right in and learned 
the harmonious, crystal voice 
of her wise, protective words. 

                                    ~heather pound 

Photo by Getty Images

if you walk out your door anxious
looking here and there for information
that proves you are somehow defective
or not enough

that you don’t quite fit in 
or are inherently strange
in the opinion of others around, 
the truth is---if you seek evidence
of things like these
                 then you will always find it.

but here is what you must understand 
before you waste another moment
trapped in cycles such as these:

this fact, it is true for e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e
everywhere 
always,
each and every human 
has experiences like these. 

but the beauty of this phenomenon 
of finding what you seek
is if you alter what you’re 
perpetually searching for
                 then you will find that too.

heather pound 2024

Photo by Josh Hild on Unsplash

after living in places far and wide
country to country
locale to locale,
i delight in the fact that 

i live in an area now
where i run into people i know
casually at the chemist
or walking along the beach 
    (walks take much longer this way)

that the man who owns the dairy
stocks my favourite
harder-to-find popcorn
just because i like it
    (seriously. just for me)

that i live within walking distance
to dear friends who would all
band together should emergency arise 
    (we discuss this happily from time to time)

that people here get overly excited
about things like lower petrol prices
or the opening of a supermarket 
    (big news indeed!)

and post on online community pages
when emergency vehicles wail past
    (making sure everyone is okay)

that there are miniature fairy villages
down by the beach at the bases of trees. 
they are undamaged and are 
still being added to several years on
    (no one knows who’s doing it!)

it’s not that this place is perfect but 
it’s a quiet place where i know others
and am known
    (and it’s mine)


heather pound 2024

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

i wake to the sound of birds

and the squeak of him shifting

in his easy chair right outside the door

 

he will have been up for an hour

at least, first coffee already consumed

as i slept on

 

a rhythm of life we’ve discovered

since he falls asleep practically as

pillow embraces head

 

and i do not, and for an hour or so

nightly read by sheltered light once

his soft snores begin beside

 

as i throw off covers and open up

the door, the cat jumps up from his lap

for my morning scratches then

 

leads me out to empty bowl insistent.

and the morning begins as usual

peaceful

        routine

                chosen

                         beautiful  

 

heather pound 2024

Photo by Stephanie Harvey on Unsplash

there you are, hanging on

for dear life to the edge

of the proverbial cliff

 

you cannot look down

to find your escape

lest your hands slip

and you fall, broken

 

you cannot climb back up

with arms that are weakened

and shake

 

so you keep holding on

for something, anything

to lift you from this place

 

and while you wait anxious

hoping that help will come

if only you stay still

 

sometimes, the reality is no one

really understands the intensity

of your experience

(you might just mask it well)

 

unless you take a deep breath

be vulnerable to

open your mouth

 

and tell them…

 

and if they don’t take you

seriously at first

then tell them

louder once again

 

                    —cliffs are not meant to be

                          quietly endured

Photo by Julian Hochgesang on Unsplash