Inner Child Poem

To Find The Child

A Poem About Healing The Inner Child by Silvia Hartmann, 1994

To Find The Child

To walk down the steps
into the cellar of despair
into the blackest gloom
where monstrous shapes lurk
and somewhere there
is a whimpering child.

To take a deep breath
to steady my pounding heart
to force my head high
and softly I call
and my voice rises clearly
above the scrabblings
and the howlings of doom.

To find the child
in the last corner
wedged tight curled tight
with eyes of searing pain
I reach out and my hand
is open and receiving
and there's the lifeline
for him to take.

But the child's too scared to move
too far gone in his terror
it's not that he won't trust me
more that he cannot move
for fear that I might disappear
that I might prove to be
another disillusion.

I look into his raving, tired eyes
and stand quite still
and all I am is strength of love -
why else would I
have dared to journey here?

Come to me.

And slowly, so slowly
a trembling little hand,
pearl white in nightmare dark
rises to meet
mine.