An Ode to Fellow Cancer Warriors & Survivors | Cancer Poem

I wrote this poem inspired by my discovery of a network of fellow cancer warriors and survivors. I found them while I was going through what felt like depression after my stem cell transplant, partly caused by friends slowly peeling away from my life because of my new life after cancer. Finding other warriors and survivors was a breath of fresh air as I finally found people who could truly relate and understand my "new normal." They understood that the physical, psychological, and emotional challenges I'd been having were real as they'd been through those, too.

This poem is a "thank you" to these brave and kind souls.

tonight, i sleep tight
humbled
inspired
liberated from self-pity,
knowing that my story
isn’t mine alone.

there are others;

others who have been through
the same sufferings
the same epiphanies.
more or less?
it doesn’t matter.

comparison is an obsolete concept
in the world of survivors
cancer warriors.

to the exceptional beings
who appeared out of the blue
with open arms
bearing their stories
resembling mine
but uniquely their own:

THANK YOU.

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