Our thanks go to Jane Evans, author of Little Meerkat's Big Panic and so much more, for enabling us to share this poem highlighting the toxicity of shame. Our hope is you will find it helpful and also circulate to those who shame children so they might learn the effects of shaming behaviour in a non-shaming or blaming way :)
A Planet Called Shame
When you shout at me I’m already gone
So you’re shouting at emptiness
I’ve jumped in my shame rocket
I’m shooting into Space
Can’t see or hear you anymore
I can only zoom far far away
Your anger, frustration, disappointment a meteor shower spraying-pitting-burning my rocket
I land with a familiar bump on a planet called Shame
I know it well I come here often
I leave my battered rocket tumbling out on to the hardness of Shame
I lay flat out in the crater of unacceptability
I swim slowly in the pool of toxic shame
I trip I stumble over the rocks of badness & unlikeability
Nothing much has changed since my last visit to planet Shame
It’s cold here on a planet called Shame
It’s lonely here on a planet called Shame
It’s scary here on a planet called Shame
It’s my destiny here on a planet called Shame
It’s my truth here on a planet called Shame
I’m tired here on a planet called Shame
It’s a long way back from a planet called Shame
My rocket is damaged so I wait to be rescued
A journey full of meteor showers will do that to a rocket
I want to come back but can’t call out from a planet called Shame
I wait, I wait, I wait to be rescued from this far away place
I can fly rockets but I can’t fix them
I need your help
When will you come?
The journey to a planet called Shame is always fast and furious
The journey back is long, dark, difficult, uncomfortable
Your disapproving tone, look, sigh, shrug is fuel for my rocket
Your compassionate acceptance rescues and restores my rocket
I’ve had enough of visiting a planet called Shame
I prefer a planet called GOOD ENOUGH
Help me spend more time there
By Jane Evans
To read more about Jane's work, including her regular blogs, please visit thejaneevans.com
