In this spoken‑word piece, R. Antonio Matta uses poetic monologue to explore the deep sense of not belonging, self‑deception, and the cyclical nature of avoiding inner pain. He likens avoidance to a 360‑degree path that leaves one where they began, and invokes Hermetic teachings that frame pain and healing as opposite poles of the same spectrum. The poem serves as a mirror reflecting personal and collective trauma, urging listeners during Mental Health Month to practice emotional honesty—through journaling, sharing, or simply feeling grief— as acts of courage and recovery. Matta connects this artistic expression to his novel Love Is in the Eye of the Beholder, positioning the work as both avant‑garde literature and a therapeutic tool that invites community dialogue, resilience, and the reclamation of self.
Chapters
Ever feel you didn't belong? Ever feel out of place and unnecessary? Life is full of so many surprises and gives way to so many discoveries. The most shocking finds are the ones under the veil that has kept hidden What's inside you? The lies we tell ourselves in order to live with ourselves are many. The life we build on these lies can become blinding with all the glittering gold. A life so corrupt if the truth isn't told. So we forget the truth. Why not forget the sorrowfulness? Forget the fear, forget the pain. Yet rarely does one forget that it all remains. Every bit of it is collected and it all comes together. No matter how obscure, there it remains. The years compile as our body gets old and the things about ourselves that we have chosen to run from cling to our soul. We cannot let go when it still clutches hold tight. It forces us to flee or take flight. War is waged between who we are and who we want to be. Running away does not help. The The path tread is 360 degrees, and in 365 days, you realize that you've run nowhere far because the circle leaves you where you began. As the seasons change and the world turns, you must not forget to embrace the truth. Yet we never forget to embrace the sorrowfulness, embrace the Fear embrace the pain. After hearing the forgotten embrace, you may feel a quiet echo within you, the kind that lingers long after the last The Last Word is Spoken. That's because this piece is more than poetry; it's a mirror. It reflects not just my inner world but the worlds we often tuck away—the ache of estrangement, the rhythm of internal conflict, and the fragile but persistent pull toward healing. Written as part of my novel Love Is in the Eye of the Beholder, The Forgotten Embrace taps into that space where memory, pain, and longing intersect. As we honor Mental Health Month, this poem becomes a timely invitation to lean into emotional honesty, to sit with our scars, and to stop running from the truths that have been chasing us. Whether it's cracking open a journal for the first time in years, whispering a trauma aloud to a trusted ear, Or simply allowing the floodgates of grief to open, these acts are more than catharsis. They are acts of courage. They are recovery. And yes, the journey is messy. The heart, like in the poem, doesn't always know where to land. It flees. It hides. It forgets its own longing. But in that forgetting, something else begins to stir. A remembering. A return. As Hermetic teachings remind us, Polarity is a natural law. Pain and healing are not opposites, but points on the same spectrum. We transmute by facing. We evolve by accepting. The Forgotten Embrace carries this message, quietly but insistently. What we fear may break us is often the key to our liberation, and what we assume has been lost—our strength, our voice, our sense of self can be rediscovered right there in the silence we've avoided. Mental Health Month calls us to community, to connection, to saying out loud, "I see you, and I'm walking this with you." If this poem spoke to you, let it be a bridge. Share it. Talk about it. Let it open a door to dialogue about trauma, about resilience, about the nonlinear path of becoming whole. You can find "The Forgotten Embrace" and other writings of mine in "Love Is in the Eye of the Beholder," available now. My body of work blends realism with abstraction and touches of the avant-garde, stories and verses shaped by the raw terrain of mental health, trauma, and recovery. If you're drawn to art that both wounds and mends, I invite you to explore it. Support the work, share the vision, and above all, stay in the dialogue. Because in remembering the forgotten, we reclaim ourselves.
