writer – My Bleeding Words

Lina’s Poem

January 29, 2021January 29, 2021 Viktoria NikolaLeave a comment

A poem in honor of my beautiful Aunt Lina who passed away in January 2021

She journeyed through her life
Collecting rays of light
A basket full of gem-like
Luminous sunlight

Her heart was always ready
To gift these beads of glitter
Words made of sunrise threading
And rippling laugh’s flitter

She weaved the strands of sun rays
Into her flowing braid
So in the darkest stormy days
Her light streamed unafraid

She spun the fabric of the sun
Into her beaming smile
So when you felt alone, undone
She’d spark your world for miles

And with her voice she took the care
To drape it with sun’s glimmer
So when she’d sing her soulful prayers
She’d wrap our hearts with shimmer

But maybe it’s her gift of light
That couldn’t be contained
For God had called her to his side
And now the sky a star has gained

Her flowing braid and beaming smile
Now shine upon creation
And someday we shall meet again
And gleam together in elation

Viktoriya Neverov-Krstic

Post-Pandemic Planet

March 30, 2020March 30, 2020 Viktoria Nikola4 Comments

DA282E46-5B54-4A1C-B98A-6DC571534718 When this illness turns to embers

And the death toll dims at last

Let us promise to remember

What we all have come to pass

Let’s remember all the darkness

When we stand out in the sun

All the panic and the madness

When we thought it could have won

When from loneliness we shuddered

When our confidence collapsed

Let’s remember we recovered

And the dread has now elapsed

In the streets when passing strangers

Let’s remember they were those

Who we fought to keep from danger

When we stayed inside our homes

Let us never take for granted

Our dear liberty to meet

Friends and colleagues at enchanted

Cafes, parks, and day retreats

Let us relish simple freedoms

Nature’s breeze on cheeks and hair

Sunny rays on backs and bare arms

Strolls through gardens, crowds at fairs

When we go out for some coffee

Read a book at bakeries

When we dance, attending parties

Cherish every moment please

Let us thank our doctors, nurses

For their frontline bravery

Where the war was humans versus

An unseen feared enemy

Let us take this harsh pandemic

And transform our selfish ways

So the future of our planet

Sees more selfless, joyous days

Viktoriya Neverov-Krstic 2020

The Crown of Suffering

January 8, 2020July 10, 2020 Viktoria NikolaLeave a comment

470E1F60-EE8C-469A-BEEF-30F8B5C9CCF8 I sat upon a lonesome boulder

And wept in grief of wonder lost

Here all my goodness spun in smolder

Here all my summers turned to frost

The cymbal boomed in loud crescendo

And rain began to beat my back

Still somehow over thund’ring bellows

I heard soft footsteps on the track

A figure stood there, sadness rendered

A weary man of wrinkled time

“Why do you weep in such surrender?

What trouble haunts you? What horrid crime?”

“My heart is shattered, dearest stranger

The cold dead ground hides my true love

My home is lost, my mind in danger

I am betrayed by God above”

The beggar smirked, though eyes still somber

And deep with wisdom as the night

The glow of suffering red embers

Played in his aura with delight

“You’re young, my child, let me tell you

A secret I have learned from woe

That pain in battle is a medal

That no dictator can bestow

You win while losing on this journey

The crown of suff’ring is a prize

For only when the stem is thorny

A rose might bloom toward sunny skies

The crater blown from sorrow’s power

Within your heart has gifted you

More space to grow your spirit’s flowers

And fill the void with knowledge new

Upon the battlefield of being

Where daydreams lay bemoaning death

You can collect the rot for feeding

This present moment’s rooted breath

You weep, but you are blessed, child

A door has opened up for you

To rise with courage, not be mild

To rage, to fight, expand anew”

And as his words dimmed in the darkness

A light of strength awoke again

So off I went into the stillness

My sorrow crowning a bravery’s reign

Viktoria Nikola 2019

Befriended Fear

November 15, 2019 Viktoria NikolaLeave a comment

I’ve learned I had a friend in fear

A trusted old companion

For in the darkest night of tears

It was my heart’s medallion

It clung to me in loneliness

In glory, loss, and hate

Embraced me with its illness

And told me it was fate

It whispered gentle promises

Pledged loyalty till death

And even after the ellipsis

It vowed to find its breath

long after love forsook me

And joy betrayed my soul

Fear joined me faithfully

And my forlornness stole

Viktoriya Neverov-Krstic

The Edge Of Darkness

November 12, 2019October 13, 2020 Viktoria NikolaLeave a comment

The edge of darkness keeps a monster

That rules the wall of “now” and “then”

And on this bulwark, this imposter

Instills cold dread in nearing men

The air there smells of blood and murder

The wind there moans in loss and threat

One’s heart there whimpers in a murmur

One’s palms there drip with nervous sweat

The edge’s monster knows true horror

One’s greatest fear is his to bend

He could command one’s deepest terror

And turn one’s will to useless sand

Yet in its claws it holds a secret

That it can too be crucified

For all it takes is one’s defiance

A dab of courage in the eyes

To stand up to the dread it summons

And know one might succumb to fright

To weep and see the end as coming

Yet stay and bear the fearsome plight

For only then will this imposter

Yield way for one to leave the ledge

Where what-may-come lives in a fostered

Light’s warming loving waiting edge

Viktoriya Neverov-Krstic

2019

LET HOPE LIVE

February 11, 2019October 13, 2020 Viktoria Nikola5 Comments

When the night mist falls around you in a thick undying fog

And obscures the stars in heaven in a twisted monologue

When the hooting owl quiets and the wolf begins to howl

And you shiver to your core before night’s unsightly growl

Let hope hold you till sunrise

Till the dawn brings night’s demise

When the winter frost subdues you and you’re shaken to the core

Not a single ray of sunshine hints of summer’s months in store

And the blizzard shrieks its vengeance at the freezing mountain tops

Let the hope beneath the snow bloom like stubborn sweet Snowdrops

Let hope bud beneath the pain

Let it skip through pouring rain

Let it laugh with sparkling eyes

Let hope live, let hope rise

In loving memory of my grandmother Nadezhda Fedrovna Kondroshova (1927-2019). Her name meant hope in Russian.

Viktoria Nikola

2019

I Am A “The”

January 22, 2019January 22, 2019 Viktoria NikolaLeave a comment

I am a “the,” make no mistake

And in this phrase – no prideful ache

I am a “the,” do not forget

This is my promise, it is no threat

I am a “the,” I’m not an “a”

Made out of steel, not out of clay

I am a “the,” I’m not an “a”

And in my faith there’s no delay

Yet, well I know, that “the’s” are rare

And when they speak, the “a’s” but stare

Still, “the” I am, and “the” I’ll stay

And never waiver, I’m born this way

I did not ask to be a “the”

Nor did I ask to be a “huh”

But here I am, my path unpaved

My spirit soars, my fate’s enslaved

I am a “the,” yet this I say

That life is easier for “a’s”

For come that dreary judgment day

The “The” will say, you weren’t an “a”

My Favorite Time Of The Year

December 21, 2018December 21, 2018 Viktoria Nikola6 Comments

Ornaments twirling on green needle branches

Glittering ribbons and song avalanches

Presents on sleighs and flying reindeer