
Living Life Poetically: Pain Brush on a New Page
Confession: I’ve been procrastinating on writing this. But I made a promise to you and myself to post all three poems in my series of unfortunate poetry. The first was “Empty,” written in 2013. This one, “Pain Brush on a New Page,” was written in 2014.
As you read “Pain Brush on a New Page,” you might want to reflect on what’s different about it compared to “Empty” from 2013. There’s a progression here, but I’m not going to spill the beans just yet. For now, I’ll let you take a guess. The progression between all three poems in the series will be revealed when I share the third one.
Although “Pain Brush on a New Page” is not on the uplifting side, I hope it serves as an inspiration to you as it does for me. When I wrote it, I was trying so hard to overcome–to stay strong and start over, again and again. It was quite exhausting, and I didn’t know if I could keep it up.
However, there is always a new page to turn to. AND you never know which page will be the turning point in your life story. So keep on doing the best you can.
You may not realize when this new page is turned and change begins to happen. Maybe it’s already begun. Regardless, once you turn to that new page that is the turning point in your life story, the pages that follow will (slowly but surely) begin to have more joy and less pain.
Pain Brush on a New Page

The pain brushed its blood on my new page.
As it has on every new page.
As it has each time I’ve tried to start over.
Each time I’ve tried to smile.
The pain never seems to run out.
It’s there, always ready to spread itself on every new page.
The pain never seems to run out; but perhaps the pages will.
Perhaps, the pages will run out,
And there will be no new page to turn to.
By E. Ballay
Written February 12, 2014


