I Start Me a New Beginning

Another era has come and gone
So many lessons were there to learn
So many of them I may have missed
And here another era comes anew

Glorious and proud in many things
I still have ways that I must travel
Grateful and thankful in many ways
I remain humbled by more to learn

Though exhausting it seems at times
Defeated and beaten down sometimes
I learn that only I can pick me up
To start again to make new strides

And in these fleeting days of illusion
I must stand for myself to live and be
And though I may have failed before
I will try some more, again and again

Though the path be strewn with thorns
And may be slippery at best at times
The Light of God will shine my way
The Sound of God will lead my path

Through this journey that I must travel
In God’s mighty hands I trust my ways
As I now start me a new beginning
To emerge again, a Glorious one.

©Oliver O. Mbamara January 1, 2012 - POEMS OF FREEDOM (All Rights Reserved)

I never met Oliver Mbamara personally, but I have a friendship with him and love and respect for him in my heart. I designed a poster for The Haiti Poster Project in 2010 and contacted Oliver to ask his permission to use his poem on my poster. He agreed. (Neither Oliver nor myself made any money on this project. Sale proceeds went directly to the aid the victims of the earthquake through Doctors without Boarders.)

http://www.thehaitiposterproject.com/posters/view/artist:239

Oliver and I began a friendship immediately. His poetry resonated with me. At the time, my X had just left. Still nursing, still working and fighting off a descending depression, I wept when reading Oliver's poems. We connected spiritually; he aided and guided me with strong, kind words and wisdom. He lifted me up with countless emails, offered support and encouragement at a time when my body lacked armature.

When Oliver published the poem above on 1/1/2013, he immediately shared it with me. I loved it then. Today, I love it even more.

Dear Oliver Mbamara,

I will be forever grateful to you for keeping a steady flame in my heart each time the winds threatened to extinguish its light. It's been a journey of ups and downs for me, mostly ups. This week I start anew, and your poem could not be any more meaningful to me than it is today. Much love to you my friend.

Andrea




For more on Oliver’s Poems please visit www.OliverMbamara.com