{"id":3110,"date":"2025-03-13T09:23:44","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T09:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/?p=3110"},"modified":"2025-03-13T10:03:24","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T10:03:24","slug":"echoes-of-a-broken-home-by-walking-shadow-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/echoes-of-a-broken-home-by-walking-shadow-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Echoes of a Broken Home by Walking Shadow Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I was raised where love sounded like war<br>Where the walls shook not from laughter,<br>But from voices sharp enough to cut through silence.<br>Where &#8220;I love you&#8221; was whispered in public,<br>But fists spoke louder behind closed doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I grew up learning that love\u2026<br>Was something you had to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so, I survived.<br>Through nights where sleep was a distant stranger,<br>Through mornings where silence sat heavy,<br>A quiet that came only after storms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They thought I wouldn\u2019t remember<br>But I did.<br>I remembered how plates shattered like promises,<br>How words, once spoken, could never be swallowed back.<br>I remembered the sound of footsteps<br>Not soft and warm, but heavy and angry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was raised in a home where love had sharp edges.<br>And even when the fights stopped,<br>The echoes never did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You see, they moved on<br>Forgave, forgot, called it the past.<br>But no one told my heart how to unlearn the fear.<br>No one told my body that raised voices wouldn\u2019t always mean danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, every argument feels like a battlefield.<br>And even the smallest shout<br>Feels like a sharp sting, touching old wounds.<br>It\u2019s like my heart jumps before my mind catches up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t trust easy<br>Not because I want to be distant,<br>But because I know how quickly love can turn into war.<br>How quickly a smile can turn into a threat,<br>And how words, once sweet, can leave bruises unseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They say love is patient.<br>But patience was never what I saw.<br>Love was loud, unpredictable, and exhausting.<br>And when someone raises their voice<br>Even if it\u2019s not at me<br>I shrink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I shrink because somewhere inside,<br>A child still waits for the next explosion.<br>Still fears that love will always mean pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And relationships?<br>They became puzzles I couldn\u2019t solve.<br>How do you trust someone to hold your heart,<br>When the ones who taught you love<br>Only showed you how to break it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I try, though.<br>I try to believe love can be soft<br>That voices don\u2019t always have to rise to be heard.<br>I try to breathe when my heart races for no reason,<br>To remind myself that not everyone leaves wounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But some nights<br>When the world gets quiet,<br>The echoes come back.<br>The sound of anger, the weight of fear,<br>The feeling that love is something you survive, not enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I want to believe<br>That love can be gentle.<br>That home doesn\u2019t have to hurt.<br>That voices can be raised in laughter, not rage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But healing?<br>It\u2019s a slow road.<br>And some parts of me are still learning,<br>That not every fight means the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if I pull back when you speak too loud,<br>It\u2019s not you, it\u2019s the ghosts I carry.<br>If I pull away when you get too close,<br>It\u2019s not rejection, it\u2019s a heart still learning to trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because I was raised where love sounded like war.<br>But now,<br>I\u2019m trying to learn a different song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Self Awareness spoken word by walking shadow poetry\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y8b-ZhhLfPE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-walking-shadow-poetry wp-block-embed-walking-shadow-poetry\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"GM7LxyqYVZ\"><a href=\"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/its-strange-really-by-walking-shadow-poetry\/\">It\u2019s strange, really by Walking Shadow Poetry<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;It\u2019s strange, really by Walking Shadow Poetry&#8221; &#8212; Walking Shadow Poetry\" src=\"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/its-strange-really-by-walking-shadow-poetry\/embed\/#?secret=Rl7vLUs5OY#?secret=GM7LxyqYVZ\" data-secret=\"GM7LxyqYVZ\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was raised where love sounded like warWhere the walls shook not from laughter,But from voices sharp enough to cut through silence.Where &#8220;I love you&#8221; was whispered in public,But fists spoke louder behind closed doors. I grew up learning that love\u2026Was something you had to survive. And so, I survived.Through nights where sleep was a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,97,25,98],"tags":[35,49,34,50,61,55,53,22,48],"class_list":["post-3110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poem","category-poetry","category-solitude","category-storytime","tag-poems","tag-poetess","tag-poetry","tag-spokenword","tag-spokenwords","tag-stories","tag-story","tag-walkingshadowpoetry","tag-walkingshadowpoetrykenya"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_9489-2-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2592,"url":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/i-wanted-to-mend-it-by-walking-shadow-poetry\/","url_meta":{"origin":3110,"position":0},"title":"I wanted to mend it by walking shadow poetry.","author":"walking shadow poetry kenya","date":"September 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"In the quiet of the night, a phone call broke the peace,A voice on the line with news that made my heart cease,An accident took you away, someone so dear,And now I\u2019m left alone, with a heart full of tears. We had a fight, with words that cut deep,Things left\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;POETRY&quot;","block_context":{"text":"POETRY","link":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/SPOKENWORDSandMODERNDAYPOETRY\/poetry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"woman in blue denim jacket crying","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/pexels-photo-8553648.jpeg?fit=801%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/pexels-photo-8553648.jpeg?fit=801%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/pexels-photo-8553648.jpeg?fit=801%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/pexels-photo-8553648.jpeg?fit=801%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3267,"url":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/i-love-you-so-much\/","url_meta":{"origin":3110,"position":1},"title":"I Love you so much.","author":"walking shadow poetry kenya","date":"April 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I love you...More than words could ever fully explain.At first, I didn\u2019t believe I could love again,because life, over time, had taught me how to build walls,not bridges. You see, I had been broken not once,but too many times to still count.And honestly, I had lost hope,lost pieces of myself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;poem&quot;","block_context":{"text":"poem","link":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/SPOKENWORDSandMODERNDAYPOETRY\/poem\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/DSC_0004-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/DSC_0004-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/DSC_0004-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/DSC_0004-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/DSC_0004-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C802&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3357,"url":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/thank-you-for-choosing-to-be-the-best-father\/","url_meta":{"origin":3110,"position":2},"title":"Thank you for choosing to Be the best Father.","author":"walking shadow poetry kenya","date":"July 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't know where to begin,Because \u201cthank you\u201d feels too smallFor the mountain of love you\u2019ve carried,And the steady hands that held me through it all. You never wore a cape,But you were my hero anyway,Not because you flew,But because you stayed. Stayed when life was heavy.Stayed when my dreams\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;poem&quot;","block_context":{"text":"poem","link":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/SPOKENWORDSandMODERNDAYPOETRY\/poem\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/40dd87d031609544121fa63cd071abc7.jpg?fit=675%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/40dd87d031609544121fa63cd071abc7.jpg?fit=675%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/40dd87d031609544121fa63cd071abc7.jpg?fit=675%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2776,"url":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/on-this-day-of-love-by-walking-shadow-poetry\/","url_meta":{"origin":3110,"position":3},"title":"On This Day of Love by walking shadow poetry.","author":"walking shadow poetry kenya","date":"October 24, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Today is the day, the moment we\u2019ve dreamed,Where two hearts unite, forever it seems.The aisle stretches long, the air filled with grace,A new chapter begins, in this sacred place. You stand before me, a vision so bright,Dressed in your finest, bathed in soft light.Eyes filled with promise, hands ready to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;POETRY&quot;","block_context":{"text":"POETRY","link":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/SPOKENWORDSandMODERNDAYPOETRY\/poetry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"wedding rings","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/pexels-photo-916344.jpeg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/pexels-photo-916344.jpeg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/pexels-photo-916344.jpeg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/pexels-photo-916344.jpeg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3481,"url":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/it-was-extremely-hard-being-a-1st-born-daughter\/","url_meta":{"origin":3110,"position":4},"title":"IT WAS EXTREMELY HARD BEING A 1ST BORN DAUGHTER.","author":"walking shadow poetry kenya","date":"December 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I grew up where the wind carried old stories,at my grandpa\u2019s place,a home held together by love,even on the days when a meal was a prayerand breakfast was a blessing we hoped for,not something we expected. Childhood taught me lackbefore it taught me laughter.It taught me how to fold hunger\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;poem&quot;","block_context":{"text":"poem","link":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/SPOKENWORDSandMODERNDAYPOETRY\/poem\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/MG_0342-scaled.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/MG_0342-scaled.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/MG_0342-scaled.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/MG_0342-scaled.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2589,"url":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/words-left-unspoken-by-walking-shadow-poetry\/","url_meta":{"origin":3110,"position":5},"title":"Words Left Unspoken by walking shadow poetry.","author":"walking shadow poetry kenya","date":"September 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"In the dead of the night, the phone rang loud,A voice on the line, breaking through the silent night,An accident took you, so suddenly gone,And my heart shattered, as the tears flowed on with might. We had our fight, words that cut like a knife,Left us both wounded, and lost\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;POETRY&quot;","block_context":{"text":"POETRY","link":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/SPOKENWORDSandMODERNDAYPOETRY\/poetry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"monochrome photo of girl crying","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/pexels-photo-2345374.jpeg?fit=839%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/pexels-photo-2345374.jpeg?fit=839%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/pexels-photo-2345374.jpeg?fit=839%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/pexels-photo-2345374.jpeg?fit=839%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3110"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3119,"href":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions\/3119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkingshadowpoetry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}