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When Your Hands Are Empty #poemofhope #faithpoetry #spokenwordpoetry

There will be a season when you have done all you know to do and still, nothing. No answer at the door. No sudden change. No sign in the sky telling you that tomorrow will be kinder. Just you, your unanswered prayer, and the strange silence that makes you question whether God is still listening. He is. Do not mistake silence for absence. Some of God's deepest work happens without making a sound. Roots grow in darkness. Healing happens beneath skin. Morning begins long before the window knows there is light. And somewhere beyond what you can see, your life is being moved by hands you cannot follow. So do not abandon your faith because you cannot trace God's footsteps. You were never promised a clear view. You were given enough light for the next step. Take it. Even if your knees shake. Even if your heart has questions your mouth is afraid to ask. Take it. Faith is not a life without uncertainty. It is waking up with uncertainty beside you and refusing to let it choose your direc...
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Not as Easy as It Looks #inspirationalpoetry #poem #sadpoetry

Not as easy as it looks,
this quiet survival dressed as grace,
this careful balance on a thinning line
between holding on
and letting something inside you break.

You see the surface,
the steady hands, the measured breath,
the way I move like I’ve memorized
How not to fall apart in public.
But you don’t see the tremor beneath it,
the way my bones hum with exhaustion
from carrying what I never put down.

There is a darkness here,
not loud, not screaming,
But patient.
It waits in the corners of my thoughts,
in the silence after conversations end,
in the long nights where sleep
feels like something I no longer deserve.

It’s not as easy as it looks
to wake up and pretend
That yesterday didn’t leave fingerprints
on everything I touch.

You think it’s a strength,
this way I keep going,
This way I show up
as if nothing inside me is unraveling.
But strength is a word people use
when they don’t know what else to call
a person who has no choice.

Because stopping,
That’s where the real danger lives.

If I stop, even for a moment,
I might hear everything I’ve buried,
every doubt whispering louder,
Every regret is crawling back
from the places I hid them.

So I keep moving.

Not because I’m brave,
But because stillness feels like drowning.

There are nights
When the dark doesn’t stay outside.
It seeps in quietly,
fills the room,
settles in my chest
like it belongs there.

And I lie awake, staring at the ceiling,
counting the seconds
between breaths,
not to calm myself,
but to remind myself
I’m still here.

Still here.

Even when it doesn’t feel like living.

Not as easy as it looks
to smile when your mind
is a battlefield of unfinished thoughts,
to laugh when your chest
feels hollowed out,
to speak when your voice
feels like it’s borrowed from someone stronger.

I have learned the art of disguise,
how to wear normal like a second skin,
how to answer “I’m fine”
with just enough conviction
to make people believe me.

And they do.

They always do.

Because no one looks for cracks
in something that still stands.

But there are cracks.

Hairline fractures in the way I think,
in the way I trust,
in the way I carry memories
that refuse to stay in the past.

They show themselves
in small, quiet ways,
in hesitation,
in overthinking,
in the way I brace myself
for things that haven’t happened yet.

It’s not as easy as it looks
to keep rebuilding yourself
from pieces that don’t fit the same anymore.

To wake up each day
and gather the fragments,
this version of me,
that version of me,
the one I used to be
before everything shifted.

And somehow,
make them resemble a person.

You see resilience.

I feel repetition.

The same battles,
the same thoughts,
the same quiet war
fought behind a steady face.

Over and over again.

And yet,
I’m still here.

Not whole.
Not unbroken.
Not untouched by the dark.

But here.

Breathing.
Enduring.
Continuing in a world
that never slowed down
long enough for me to catch up.

So when you say
“It looks easy,”

understand this,

what you’re seeing
is not ease.

It’s survival
refined into something
that doesn’t ask for help.

It’s pain
taught how to stay quiet.

It’s a person
learning how to exist
with the weight of everything
they never said out loud.

Not as easy as it looks.

Not even close.


© 2026 Gloria Penelope

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