Hard as a Diamond
Note: Diamonds are remarkably hard. They are used in industry for grinding, drilling, and sawing. Diamonds can cut through concrete.
Diamond hard times hone me
into the sharpest, most sturdy weapon.
Diamond hard times shine,
revealing evil—all that blocks freedom.
Diamond hard times shine brilliant,
revealing all evil,
including my own,
that I may overcome this inner enemy.
Diamond hard times shine,
revealing my resistance to my freedom.
Diamond hard times
force me to choose hope.
Thus I sacrifice my excuses for inaction.
Diamond hard times force me to
either recognize even more of my duties to community and self
or sink into self-pity and despair.
Diamond hard times force me to fulfill my duties
or live in self-pitying despair.
Diamond hard times are strong enough
to grind down my resistance to beauty.
Above diamond hard times,
the sky arcs:
Searingly compassionate blues
—that only an Artist could create—
enfold the moment. A loving embrace.
Diamond hard times
force me to raise my gaze,
study the sky,
and ponder the ring of mountains
that circle me with their
sun-bleached grass and cloud-like crests.
Beauty fills my cells with joy,
revealing meaning and purpose.
Francesca De Grandis, bestselling author of Be a Goddess!, is a fairy witch. She offers long-distance classes and shamanic counseling. She will also cast spells for you. Her Goddess spirituality embraces practical magic spells.
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I don’t know if you’ve written a tune for this yet, but I can “hear” you singing it…
Wow, thank you for suggesting it! Even if I don’t write a melody for it, I could do a recording of it spoken because the spoken word is melodic when performed well. … Okay, i’m gonna go make notes for that right now, lol, thank you!
Agree with Natara, this piece is melodic. It has a cadence to it that, again, makes me want to dance, or march, or chant, or…
Carmo, thank you, It is really helpful to me that you seconded Natara‘s comment. You not drove home what she said, you added to it.
Sometimes I don’t really see all the pluses of what I’ve created until someone points them out. Although I worked hard on the piece, I didn’t fully see the cadence and melody.
Even if I can’t set it to music or do a recording of it, I think I’ll use it in a classe so that we can all do the rhythm together. I have you and Natara to thank for that.
To the point, like a diamond and I have shared it with a chum in Canada 🇨🇦 🧞♀️🧚♂️luv always, Kat
Thank you, so much, darling! 🩷 🎪 🤹🏽♀️ 🎠 🎡 🎢 🤸🏽♂️
This was hard to read and ponder, as I have been in a protracted period of inaction, and “flailing” as I call it. I am so fearful of discomfort and pain and bad times and struggle – probably these are my biggest fears. Your poetry helped me to keep hoping and to see that these times are refining me into what I need to become even if I can’t see it. Thanks Francesca.
-Lisa in SC
Lisa, thank you. I applaud you for trying to find the benefits of struggle. Bless you.
Just read this after an exhausting week on Friday evening (in Germany), and before taking the next step of renovating… you nailed it, like always. Thank you so much for taking us with you on this road – getting better and ever more shining, useful for ourselves and the World around us.
Bless you, such kind words, Susanne, and such powerful ones. Best of luck with all your endeavors.
Powerful words. Beautiful art! *chef’s kiss*
Thank you, my friend! Mwah!
I love the poetry of the diamond and its creation. It takes such extreme conditions to create one and volcanic tremors move them to the Earth’s surface. There are places with diamonds under the surface (Arkansas) but too deep to dig up. Thank you for your words to remind us of why diamonds are beautiful.
Thank you for your very kind words and the wonderfully interesting information, wow!
My dear friend, how often have your words found me at exactly the right time, clearing my vision, slipping magic in where it was missing. The past decade has certainly felt like a process of grinding and shearing away so much of what I called “me.” I thought I was being reduced to ash; I did not consider becoming a diamond. Thank you. Bless you forever.
Deb, your beautiful words humble me. Thank you. I really really really needed to read them because, after I wrote this blog, a card reading told me that things were going to be reduced to Ash. Yup, ash, same word you used. I was shocked by the reading because I felt that my life had already been reduced to Ash, from which I had risen like a Phoenix. But, yes, you are reminding me of the very lesson I’m trying to convey with this poem. Whatever is coming will just hone me further. Thank you!
There is an unlikely but still thought-provoking quote by Michelangelo about carving his exquisite David by simply removing everything [from the stone block] that wasn’t David. I remind myself that the universe is removing everything that isn’t me anymore. Thanks to you, when I’m afraid of how little seems to be left, I can remember that a diamond is much smaller than the deposits of ash and coal it started from, and it is still highly valued.
Wow, how beautiful, thank you!
Diamond hard times compress prose into poems
That cut through to my heart.
Thank you, Francesca!
What a beautiful comment, Toni, your own words compressed by hard times into a diamond. Thank you for being you and for your loving support.
I was just thinking last month about becoming a diamond because of the hardtimes i’m in while I was looking at the sky on my bike riding allong the Rotte. A river in Rotterdam. The Netherlands. Feeling greatfull for these moments and also finding your email with this feeling in my heart so well decribed in your poem! Thank you. <3
Love,
Gaby
Oh my goodness, that means so much to me, thank you!
Yes! Pressure creates Diamonds!
I love your Art on this post and I love You!!!
Darling Fawn, thank you!!! And I love you too!!!