My heart aches
my soul
cries.
Nowhere do I know
the road
to
take.
The life to abide.
~ Patrice
@ Patrice Clarkson – 2026


Heaven help me
Be a kind, gentle human being
Let no one come to be
My arch rival, my enemy.
Let me see kindness
Majesty
In every creature
Every human being.
Let no one be sacrificed
Just because
They haven’t seen
The light.
Let us all be one
Together
Loving, holding each other
Very tight.
So that we sleep peaceful
Throughout
The quiet, troubled
Night.
~ Patrice
@Patrice Clarkson – 2023

Don’t let me say
The words I don’t want to hear
Please let me speak the words
That’ll guide me away
Far away from here.
Let me do
What needs to be done
Let it be something beautiful
And nothing
I would want undone.
That is all I ask
That is all I can do
Let me be happy
With these words, these things
I will, I can do.
~ Patrice
@Patrice clarkson – 2023

My pen writes what I say
My pen never questions
The words I put down.
Anyone can use
My pen
It doesn’t care but writes
What the fingers share.
My pen
Follows along
Putting down the thoughts
Without it the words would
Be long, long gone.
My pen
Is always there
Then its done
And I get another one
My pen.
~ Patrice
© Patrice Clarkson – 2013

At the end of the workshop, to say thanks to my fellow journeyers, I made up postcards with a painting and an affirmation of mine on each.
Everyone in the group got their own unique card. One of the facilitators called to say thanks and said too, ‘You should do something with your poetry’.
© Patrice Clarkson – 2015

I’m an artist. Have been all my life. Loving the drawing, painting of nature and feeling a connection to animal life.
People, not so much. People have issues. I have issues.
And that brings me to why I’m here.
At the urging of an acquaintance, I opened my blog. She was my first ‘Follower’ — just to encourage me to get out of my comfort zone and feel I was writing to someone, not just out to empty space. I thank her so much for her support then.
I believed a blog was a good place to show my art, my photos. Drive new customers to my website. But what made my blog any different from any other artist’s blog? What would make it unique? Me?
That was where I was stagnated. For months it sat there. Not a new post, not a new word.
– to be continued…
© Patrice Clarkson – 2015

Reading, writing
Putting it down on paper
Making it real
By telling maybe, a lie.
Live a life never known
But through another’s eyes
Feeling emotions
Sometimes reduced to cry.
Breathing life into words
Taking us on a magical journey
An exciting adventure
From reading, writing
Putting it down on paper.
~ Patrice
© Patrice Clarkson – 2014

My running is not all I am about
But it is what keeps me physically healthy, grounded and at peace
Without it, I will have no focus, no inner peace.
My writing is not all I am about
But from it, I feel whole, in touch with who I am spiritually
I feel a calm, a calm fulfillment.
My art is not all I am about
It’s what I need, what I feel called to do
A yearning, a desire, a challenge, an ecstasy
It is who I am. Who I desire to be.
But not all I am about.
~ Patrice
© Patrice Clarkson – 2014

It started in my head
It grew in my heart
My pen let it out
That painting, that writing
That perfect piece of art.
It’s voice did cry
‘Bring me out to the world
Not living just in your head’
I heard those words from
That perfect piece of art.
Begged to be seen
Begged to be read
That idea, that writing
That perfect piece of art.
Now the world can see
What my pen brought out
That lived in my head
Grew in my heart
That painting, that writing
That perfect piece of art.
~ Patrice
© Patrice Clarkson – 2014