Dishearten

The Poem-A-Day challenge today, by Poets Aside, brought us an interesting prompt -  a word coined by Shakespeare (each poet's choice) should be the title and the theme of our poem. I'd have never imagined that more than 1700 words we commonly use today were created by Shakespeare. That inspired me, because I do, too, love to create words!  People look at me funny sometimes, buy hey, if Shakespeare could do it, so can I! :)

If you're interested in seeing some of Mr. Shakes' words, check them here: http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html

For this poem I chose "dishearten".

Dishearten

Some individuals just like to dishearten you,
you might have tasted that bitter feeling, too.
Some creatures are soulless, I don't mean
they are mean – no! They are just empty,
therefore they know less, they do less good,
they hurt more often, and they like to
dishearten you, and me, and the kids along.
I call those species “dishearteners”.
If you come across a disheartener today,
just dispatch the gremlin away!
Because to dishearten is really easy,
and it can be confused with good intentions,
so you may not realize the deep thought
behind the words of a disheartener.
It may come in different ways, like
hypocrisy, envy, harsh criticism and
the worst of all that throws you against the wall:
pretended good advice for life.
Those who unwillingly dishearten you
start saying that you'd better be, do
or have it (whatever it is)
some other way.
And that's how they discourage you
from being, doing, and having it the way
you feel like. They wring your confidence
and daunt you from living the life you choose.
If you meet a troll like that when you go for a stroll
and it says that this way you won't amount to anything,
tell it to go take a hike, because you live
your life the way you like.

- Rosangela C. Taylor