One brisk, beautiful morning back in April 1992, my husband Chris and I got up and decided to go to the park to relax. He knew how much I enjoyed feeding the ducks and swans. The park with the pond was close to our house, so we packed some bread and crackers and drove there. I couldn’t wait to arrive. I was excited and full of well-being and contentment.

When we arrived, Chris and I spread our blanket on the grass and got comfortable, sitting and watching the birds for a while. Then I got the bag of bread and the crackers. Tossing some out to the ducks and swans was a shared delight. I felt at peace, calm, almost euphoric. Being in the moment, amongst nature, rejuvenated me. It was that joyful, and pleasant.

All I could do was smile. My smile felt like it was frozen on my face. That’s how happy I was. I felt this happiness soothe my inner self. It made me feel so serene that I pulled out my writing pad and wrote this poem.

I didn’t feel a care in the world. I sat, taking it all in. It was pure delight, sitting there, being one with the universe, while soaking in all that goodness. It was a lighthearted, joyful day.

The Pond

The mid-day sun
Gleams across
The magenta pond
As graceful swans glide round and round.

Oh, how I enjoy the jade green grasses,
tickling my toes,
And,
The shade trees,
Cooling the summer breeze.

Oh, how wonderful life can be
Watching nature just be!

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.

Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image by Mat Fascione, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

I wrote this poem in 1999 to an Australian friend who also didn’t want to stay in contact with me. I tried to reason and nurture him in his state of pain, but he wanted nothing of it. So I just had to let things be and let go.

The Hands of Time

If I could turn back
The clocks…
I would.

If I could stop time
In its movement…
I would change
The events of that day!

If I could take away
Your pain…
I would wipe
Your tears away

I can only
Love you,
Console you and
Comfort you
By wrapping you
In my blanket of
Tender loving care!

I can kiss away your sorrow
And be there

For you…

I can lend you my strength,
My support,
My caring nature and loving ways…

But oh, how I hurt for you,
How my heart goes out to you…

I tried to talk to you,
I tried to reason with you,
By sharing
My own trials,
And my own tribulations…

I tried to intervene to prevent you
From making them yourself,
But you said
With conviction,
“Your mate
Would see you through”…

Now, look!
My shining star,

Once a happy,
Joyous soul.
Now sad,
With a cloud of
Unknown hanging
Over his sweet spirit.

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.

Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image by Chris Downer via Wikimedia Commons.

I wrote this poem in the early nineteen-eighties. It symbolizes all the lessons and all the experiences I have had as a disabled person. I spiritually and physically danced through each and every event in my life. Instead of making something a problem or an issue, I welcomed them all as paths to make myself a better person. And so I overcame every challenge in my way.

The Dance

My dances
Are like
Lyrics to songs
I wait
Only
For the right rhythm!

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.

Original text and image ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image of Karen Lynn-Chlup teaching dance at a senior center from her private collection.

In 1984, my mentor, Robert, and I went for one of our walks. Above us, a blackbird soared, silhouetted against the blue sky, with something in its beak. The bird landed. We tip-toed as close as we could. As we approached it in the mid-morning sun, it flew back into the sky, a moth in its mouth. While saddening, we knew this for an ecological process of life.

The Blackbird and the Moth

The blackbird flew by
With a moth inside its beak
In the midday sun.

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.

Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image by Tum kohinoor, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

In the mid-1980s, when I was in my twenties and single, I met a man in one of my B’nai B’rith social groups. He was handsome, down to earth, and he captured my attention in a way other men had not. Something about him held my interest.

We kept exchanging glances, and I thought he might come over and talk to me, but he never did. I thought perhaps he might start a conversation that would lead to friendship, at the least. At other social gatherings, he always looked at me. I thought there might be some connection, and from the feelings I developed for him. Especially from those feelings. I even daydreamed about having a relationship with him.

But I was naïve, and didn’t have loads of experience in the dating world, even though I was told many times, ”You are so wise for your age.” And I would chuckle inside, wondering why.

Time passed. I grew up and nothing ever came of those glances, but still, this was a life-altering experience that helped me learn to be strong and empathetic. Unfortunately, many people push these kinds of experiences away. They bury them down deep within themselves and never face their emotions and heal. Or they toss them off as being nothing. But still the feeling remains, and so does the pain.

As for me, I wrote this poem, daydreaming of what a special night would be like.

That One Special Night

The room was tranquil,
The room was dark,
The room lit up
With your tender heart,

You kindled a candle,
And held me tight,
You touched my soul
With your sweet delight

Never did I know
A purer
Love than yours
Which could capture
My essence
And existence or both.

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.

Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image by “Secrets” via Wikimedia Commons.

In 1983, I wrote this poem about my friend Robert, and how we truly nurtured each other’s thoughts and feelings, and knew how to let our inner child out to play. Every day, we took a walk to relax after our college classes got out. Robert, my mentor, went over what we had studied so I could retain the information I had learned, and he made it fun for me. Sometimes, we would relax by going to the library, choosing a book, and reading our hearts out. But, if we were near the swings in a park, we joyfully let our inner child out to play. It was the best way to relax and let go of all the stress from the day.

Those were sweet moments to recall.

Swings at Play

We looked across
The park that
Brisk, bright day.
We saw the swings begin to sway.

You looked to me,
And I to you,
Asking, what would you
Like to do?

I answered you
With a simple smile.

Let’s go play!
Let our child’s
Hearts play with desire

So we began…
We began to skip,
Then saunter.
Soon we were running
Carefree

And I,
I pranced,
Just to be me!

Dancing and swinging so high
Only to touch the silvery sky
Allowing the breeze to blow,
Forgetting my every woe

But then twilight came,
The sun began to set,
And no more could we play,
So, we played no more!

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.

Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image by Brandon Couch via Wikimedia Commons.

I wrote this poem in March 1981. I was searching, and felt as if I had been seeking all my life—for truth—for a reason why, and to rest for a while. Thus far, this feeling has been a constant reminder that I am an instrument in disguise.

Thank goodness, when I get down, I know how to get right back up. I have a willingness to see the light, to better my attitude, and to keep learning, growing, and giving back to others unconditionally.

As I have read, “What you seek, so shall you receive.”

Sweet Blades

Quietly, I speak out to the elements of nature.
I tell the earth’s grass of my disbelief in him,
And how desperately I want to breathe
The sweetness of its blades

How anxiously I’d like to
Feel the sun glowing in my shadow

Internally, I ask the God of Nature
To help me accept thy will
And not mine

I question my inner spirit…
I wonder if God is truly with me?
Will He come to pass?
Or pass me by?
So I pray

I pray with heart divine
I ask with all my might
Like a child’s prayers to the stars above

God of Nature, God above,
Be with me all the time!
Let me know that you are by my side,
No matter how many times I
Seek thy sweet divine!

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.

Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image by Peter Balcerzak, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

I could have written this poem every day of my life. I wrote it in 1980, when spring had sprung. Nobody wanted to hear me—I was a crip you know, with cerebral palsy—to whatever degree you want to look at it. If truth be told, instead of being accepted, I was regarded as a paralyzed, weakened individual who was disabled and treated differently from other people in this world.

I was not considered a real human being who deserved respect and dignity. Instead, I was used for all the good qualities I had then and have now. When people finished using me, they tossed me aside, only to be used again, or trampled over, flattened by children stampeding in an Easter egg hunt. Oh ya. My prize—one lollipop.

And you know what? That really happened when I was only four years old. Yet I saw the sunshine through it all. I found out I didn’t want to be an angry human. Plus, I wanted to deal with the experience, release the hurt in my heart, and rise above it to become a kinder, more compassionate person.

Sitting outside on a beautiful day in 1980, looking back on that experience, the warm sunshine and fresh air soothed me. But just for a moment. Within me, the temperature rose to a boil, despite the cool breeze, and the inferno burst into a blaze. I had to deal with it.

Within me, the sparks fired fast, one after another. No words were spoken aloud, not even one. And not more than a minute went by. In the deep crevices of my soul, I had to breathe. I had to feel the pain and deal with the memories courageously. I and I alone had to feel my feelings, because I and I alone could put out my own fire.

I had to be the one to treat myself with kindness and compassion, to start the process of forgiveness. If I didn’t, and I couldn’t pick up my broken pieces and start over again, I’d live with pent-up anger and resentment, the rest of my life. And I’d spread the pain by blaming others.

More than ever, I had to put all this to rest, and love and help myself. I had to nurture and change my thoughts, to bless myself, to breathe, and face everything—and let go of the hurt and pain that triggered me. It was not too late.

Still Ablaze

The warm sun shone,
And the air was fresh all around,
But inside, the temperature rose

The cool, crisp elements
Brought sparks
Which turned into a cerise inferno

Words were not spoken
Sharp objects flew about
“Oh dear”, cried the young woman.
“I tried to save our house from fire”
But it was too late
All was lost
All that remained,
Was still ablaze!

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.

Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons.