Childhood Is Forever: A Book of Poems

By Nadine Dunseith

Nadine Dunseith's second book of poetry takes a more personal approach and focuses on sensitive issues around childhood and abuse. Her poetry explores the emotions and trauma around abuse, and provides survivors with an understanding of the resilience and courage to face these memories of the past and present.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nadine Dunseith
• Release date: Apr 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386944799

Nadine Dunseith

Nadine Dunseith is a high school English teacher. She considers herself to be a lover of Shakespeare and the poetry of Sylvia Plath. She finds inspiration in stories that reveal the human experience in all its beauty and pain. When she is not teaching and marking papers, she is likely writing poetry, playing with her two children, or reading a wonderful book.

Book preview

PROLOGUE: CHILDHOOD DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

Iremember my childhood . Days in the sun, riding my bike. Days in the winter, sliding down the monstrous hill behind my house. Snow days and beach days and days of reading in my room.

My brother and I playing with cars in the dirt. Watching music videos. Fighting and arguing over toys and television shows.

However, something always hung like a vapour. Like an apparition. I never realized it until years later. Until I was much older and could reflect on it. It is something that in the context of a small town was swept under the rug. Sexual abuse is something that, in the 80s, was often ignored or wiped away like the image on a chalkboard.

Sometimes, I think back to that time and in the midst of laughter and tears, there was something not quite right. One might say it was unthinkable that a family member would prey upon a young girl. But what was even more disheartening for that young girl was the way it was treated as something normal.

This is something I felt I could only discuss in writing. In the words of my heart. Something that lingered for years and still lingers now.

How does an adult find peace in the memories of their childhood?

The following selections of poetry are pieces of my heart, some of the most cathartic and personal - however, in writing these pieces, it has helped with my recovery and the understanding of my pain. These poems follow a narrative pattern. They tell a story. It could be