25 Comments
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Kari DeWitt's avatar

This was painfully beautiful. I know this hunger. This is truly a masterpiece and an empowering reflection. Thank you for sharing! 🙏🏼❤️

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Debra King's avatar

Thank you Kari 🥹❤️ Putting this hunger into words feels like taking a little bit of power back.

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Kari DeWitt's avatar

And that is a great reason to keep doing what you’re doing…write and share. ❤️🫂 We get to take OUR power back. 🐦‍🔥

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Boo Pfeiffer's avatar

This is breathtaking

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Debra King's avatar

Thank you so much Boo. Sometimes the truest words are the hardest to write,

so it means everything when they’re felt. 🤍

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A. G. Giberson | Poet's avatar

This resonated. I think it is my deepest wound that I am only now starting to examine. Thank you for posting such a personal piece.

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Stacey Smit's avatar

This is so beautiful. I painted about the mother wound a few years ago. Phew it's a deep one hey! And I'm surprised at how difficult it is for me to love myself. I'm working at it though and I'm sure it'll get easier the more I practice

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Debra King's avatar

Yes, the mother wound runs deep. It’s incredible that you turned to painting to explore it; art holds truths words sometimes can’t. Keep showing up for you, you're doing beautifully. 💛

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Michelle Hopkins's avatar

Your poem really touched me & connects with my mother experience exactly. It's so true how we search for that missed love & secure attachment in others, to fill us up and make us whole again. Yet, it's developing self love and compassion that's the long journey ahead to create inner safety and stability, to begin the process of healing 🙏🪷🙏

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Debra King's avatar

Thanks Michelle, I’m so glad the poem spoke to your experience. We’re walking that long road together, one gentle step at a time. 🫶

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Priya | The Pretend Poet's avatar

Thank you so much for writing this, Deb. You’ve given a name to something I’ve always felt but didn’t know what to call — Mother Hungry

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Debra King's avatar

Thank you, Priya. Naming is part of my own healing, and knowing it resonates with you makes me feel less alone in it too. Sending love as you continue your journey. 💛

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Taylor Gilmore's avatar

Debra, this is so beautiful. I felt all of it... the ache, the longing, and the strength in every line. Thank you for sharing something so raw and honest.

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Debra King's avatar

Thank you so much! ❤️

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Tamy Faierman M.D.'s avatar

Beautiful expression of what many of us suffer - the lack of maternal nourishment. Thank you Debra for writing what's in so many people's hearts. Speak your truth.

'Hunger to healing' - love it.

And your beautiful poetry book is coming out on my birthday, June 30 woohoo, double celebration lol

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Debra King's avatar

Thank you Tami for your kind words and encouragement. From hunger to healing... may we all keep finding our way back to the love we always deserved. 💛

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Tamy Faierman M.D.'s avatar

My pleasure.

May we all find our way back to the LOVE WE ARE ✨🙏

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Saira Anwar's avatar

Debs, this one cut deep. Mother Hungry is achingly beautiful and so profoundly true. You’ve put words to the kind of hunger many of us carry in silence, a hunger that slithers, as you say, beneath the skin. I felt every line, especially the ache of surviving on crumbs and the slow, sacred journey of learning to feed yourself with tenderness.

The way you transform pain into nourishment, into strength, is breathtaking. This isn’t just a poem, it’s a mirror for the little girl inside so many, the one still learning she was never too much, just deeply hungry for what she deserved all along.

Your reflection moved me just as much. The idea of turning that hunger into healing, the kind only we can give ourselves, is powerful beyond words. The way you describe becoming the warmth, the safety, the voice you never had, that’s the kind of self-love we all need to witness. The gentleness with which you now hold the parts of yourself that once felt unlovable is nothing short of sacred.

Thank you for showing that true healing is a journey of turning inward and giving ourselves the love we deserve. Your words are a gift, as always. And I’m grateful for this space to learn and grow alongside you. Always here, always cheering you on. 💛❤️🫶🏻✨️

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Debra King's avatar

Saira, your words reflect back the very heart of why I wrote it. For the little girls in all of us who learned to survive on scraps and are now slowly learning to feast on gentleness, softness, and self-trust. I’m so moved that it reached you, that we get to witness each other in this space of remembering, reclaiming, and rebuilding.

Thank you for being here, and for holding this space with such reverence. I’m grateful to grow alongside you. 💛❤️

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Saira Anwar's avatar

My pleasure, my friend! I love being here. The image of learning to feast on gentleness, softness, and self-trust is going to stay with me—it captures so much of what this healing journey is truly about.

I’m so grateful to be part of this space where we can cheer each other on, witness one another, and honour all that we’re becoming.

Thank you for all you do and all that you are. You are such an inspiration. Growing alongside you is truly a gift. 💛❤️🫶🏻✨️

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Stephanie Marie's avatar

This was so beautiful. I'm so glad you are giving yourself that love now. ❤️

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Debra King's avatar

Thanks Stephanie. ❤️

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Antony's avatar

Deborah, you should appreciate the complete opposite.

When a mother’s love is not 100%, and simultaneously all anyone is showed.

In that manner…you’ll learn to appreciate starvation.

As opposition to swallowing poison eternally.

Maybe not everyone is designed to have maternal guidance.

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Debra King's avatar

I appreciate your perspective, but please don’t tell me what I 'should' appreciate. Everyone’s healing is different.

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Antony's avatar

I’m sorry, not what I was projecting.

What I meant was the showering of a mother’s love…which you’re missing…is like being stuffed on venom when the love is blatantly toxic, manipulative, deceitful, controlling, and all consuming.

I actually meant you should appreciate your appreciation. If that makes sense.

As in whatever damaged you. The opposite wouldn’t fix or have prevented your damage any better.

🫶

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