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I Promise by Riley Hope McPheters
Episode 258 • 13th January 2026 • One Poem Only • Maggie Devers
00:00:00 00:03:08

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I Promise

Riley Hope McPheters

When you are sad-
It feels that is who you are.
You are not the sad of a hard day,
Nor the sad of a loved one gone too soon,
You are a sad that is in your blood,
Cold and slow.
A depression deeper than the depths of rock bottom.
Rock bottom becomes your safety net-
And when it is not deep enough to relate to the pain within your own walls,
You scrape with your nails to get even deeper into the depths of your own sorrow.
Days are warped- time is too fast yet manages to be miserably slow.
The perfunctory lives of those around you drive you into an underworld of isolation that you
feel as if you don’t want to come up from.
And not all do.
We lose many from sadness. Inner war that comes with no peace treaty. Anger and
traumas many grow so numb to.
An inner frustration with no exit point.
Sadness is us. And we are sadness.

However, some of us get cold to the darkness- or curious of the light up above. Some of us
start climbing,
Knowing that no fall could be as damaging as the darkness below we once knew so so well.

The lives of routine we once feared became the lives of ambition,
Prosperity,
Resilience,

And strength we learned to admire the most.

To feel the warmth of the light and know it was never too far. To feel the sadness seep out
of the very veins that once held it.

To be full of so much brightness- no darkness could outweigh what is within.

To be ok with the darkness and look forward to the light.

To be so whole. To be so happy.

It is possible.

Find your light. And accept your darkness.

Growth happens there.
I promise.

More from Riley Hope McPheters ↓

  1. @rileyhmcpheters on Instagram
  2. She is a member of @PoetzPortalFW, that exists to awaken consciousness and cultivate liberated creative practice through the transformative power of poetry, sound, and communal dialogue.

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