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# Poem: Holidazed
- URL: https://www.reyes-chow.com/poem-holidazed/
- Published: 2023-12-17T13:00:59.000Z
- Updated: 2025-02-27T04:26:21.000Z
- Description: and somehow I make it through
- Author: Bruce Reyes-Chow
- Tags: reflection

*I wrote this one years ago, but the internet gremlins and website migrations have made it hard to find, so here you go.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/db/f8/dbf829b6-514b-4fc5-9764-dc1c6c47b780/content/images/2025/02/6ac64ef2-7017-4a01-a6b6-92873f431ba9_1080x1080.png)

weather shifts  
invitations arrive  
decorations appear

joyful, joyful is the call  
joy does not always come  
and somehow I make it through

memories of loved ones departed brings back grief and heartache  
family resentments are added to the hidden pile of sadness and secrets  
upkeep of my stylized life becomes a weight of isolation and despair

answers are fleeting  
understanding is at my fingertips  
joy beckons from a distance

and yet  
’tis the season of joy  
of heartache  
of secrets  
of despair

and somehow I make it through

---

***Poetry is not something I do much of, but in sporadic attempts to embrace discomfort in how I express my thoughts about life and the world, I try it.***

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