Poetry, Ideas & Reflections

Alongside my academic research and writing, I have a longstanding interest in creative expression as a way of exploring ideas, experiences and the complexities of human and political life.

My poetry brings together some of the themes that inform my scholarly interests, including power, identity, diplomacy, small-state agency, climate change and our understanding of the world. It also explores broader questions of belonging, personal growth, resilience, relationships, memory and the human experience.

Some of these pieces translate ideas from International Relations into a more reflective and accessible form; others are more personal explorations of experiences, values and observations.

For me, writing provides another way of engaging with ideas: questioning established perspectives, expressing what is not always easily articulated and finding connections between intellectual inquiry and lived experience.

This collection brings together selected poems and reflections written over time.

Soft Power and Identity

Not every power moves in force or steel,
Nor speaks in the language of might;
Some travel quietly through stories,
Crossing borders without resistance,
Shaping how nations are seen and felt.

It begins with a tale of who we are:
A memory shaped by history and identity,
A narrative woven from culture and values,
Giving people meaning and form.

It is crafted in practice and belief,
Then projected outward through diplomacy and voice,
Offering a presence beyond the self.

Yet a story holds no power alone;
It must be heard and accepted,
Recognised as truth or possibility,
Resonating across different worlds.

Thus soft power grows:
Not through coercion, but connection,
Through narratives that travel and settle,
Building trust where interests meet.

For in the realm of soft power,
A nation’s strength lies in its story:
To inspire others to see themselves within it,
Or to believe in the story it becomes.

Dr Sarina Theys

The Myth of Smallness

They called them small.

Not because they lacked influence,
but because power prefers
its own reflection.

Maps became hierarchies.
Numbers became limits.
Size became a story
repeated until it sounded true.

Yet smallness was never an inherent fact.

It was constructed:
a language of power
designed to constrain agency
and define significance
on someone else's terms.

As The Soft Power of Non-Western Small States
reminds us,
influence is not measured
by territory or population alone.

It lives in relationships,
ideas,
diplomacy,
and the courage
to shape one's own narrative.

The states did not become larger.

They simply stopped believing
they were small.

Dr Sarina Theys

Climate Clock

Tick tock — can you hear its call?
The forests burn, the coastlines fall.
The tides creep in, the storms grow wild,
A changing world, a threatened child.

A constant warning, loud and clear,
A future closer than we fear.
Time does not wait, nor turn around;
Its passing leaves a scar on the ground.

Tick tock — hurry up!
No borrowed time, no second chance.
The clock keeps moving, relentless and cold,
While futures hang in the balance, untold.

Do not be fooled, do not look away,
The climate clock ticks every day.
It cannot be silenced, delayed or overruled;
For nature keeps time, and time is no one's to control.

Dr Sarina Theys

I Do Not Compete

I do not compete for room to rise.

I know the horizon does not end
where another woman stands.

Her brilliance is not a boundary.
Her success is not my shortage.
The sky has never asked us
to take turns shining.

I have learned the shape of my own strength,
the sound of my own voice,
the ground beneath my own feet.

So when another woman rises,
I do not measure.
I do not compare.
I celebrate.

And when she cannot see
the light she carries,
I will remind her.

Women who know their worth
do not compete for the light:

they stand in it fully,
and help others find theirs.

Dr Sarina Theys

The Strength She Did Not See

She was taught to fold herself small,
to quiet her voice,
to dim her light
so others could shine brighter.

She mistook silence for humility,
self-sacrifice for love,
and invisibility for virtue.

For years she carried borrowed truths,
wearing labels that never belonged to her:
too much,
too ambitious,
too sensitive,
too different.

So she shrank,
piece by piece,
until she almost forgot
the shape of her own soul.

Then life, in its relentless wisdom,
placed mirrors in her path:
not of glass,
but of experience,
heartbreak,
courage,
and awakening.

And in those reflections
she saw something unexpected.

She was never small.

The limits she carried
had been handed to her by others,
wrapped in fear,
expectation,
and misunderstanding.

She began to unlearn.
To question.
To reclaim.

With every boundary she drew,
her roots grew deeper.
With every truth she spoke,
her voice grew stronger.
With every step she took,
her purpose became clearer.

The woman who once apologized for existing
learned to stand without permission.

The woman who doubted her worth
learned that her value was never up for debate.

And the woman who believed she was insignificant
discovered she had always been powerful:
not because she became someone new,
but because she finally met
the person she had been all along.

Now she walks forward
not seeking approval,
but guided by purpose.

Not shrinking to fit spaces,
but creating them.

Not questioning whether she belongs,
but knowing she does.

For the greatest transformation
was not becoming powerful:

it was realizing
that she always was.

Dr Sarina Theys

The River of Life

The river of life carries many souls to our shore.

Some linger long enough to become part of our landscape, leaving traces of themselves along the way. Others drift quietly away, carried by the current and swallowed by the tide.

The riverbanks shape its journey, guiding it around bends, through unfamiliar waters and towards distant shores, giving it the freedom to wander without ever losing its way.

Along its course, some souls find a place to call home, while others continue their journey beyond the horizon. Each, however, leaves something behind, becoming part of the river's story as it flows towards the unknown.

Dr Sarina Theys

The Geography of Becoming

There was a girl who left one place
and found herself in another.
She crossed countries,
crossed languages,
crossed the invisible borders
between who she had been
and who she might become.

She learned that belonging
was not always something given.
Sometimes it was something built
in the quiet hours after work,
in friendships that crossed continents,
in conversations that changed her thinking,
in the courage to begin again
when nobody was waiting at the other end.

Some places gave her knowledge.
Others gave her distance.
Some offered possibility,
others taught her what she could no longer accept.

There were places she loved
but could not stay.
Places she never expected to love
but somehow left a part of herself behind.
And places she returned to
only to discover
that neither they nor she
were quite the same.

She learned that a place
is never simply its landscape.

It is the person you became there.
The thoughts you first dared to think.
The friendships that outlasted distance.
The evenings you spent wondering
whether you were where you were meant to be.

It is the version of yourself
that exists only because
you once lived there.

Perhaps this is what it means
to become a place.

To carry the quiet confidence
of one country,
the curiosity of another,
the resilience learned somewhere else,
and the openness that comes
from having lived beyond the boundaries
of what once felt familiar.

Dr Sarina Theys

The Places We Become

We go to places thinking we are going somewhere.
A new country.
A different language.
A street whose name we cannot yet pronounce.
A window overlooking a life
we have not learned how to live.

We arrive with suitcases,
with carefully folded clothes,
with memories packed between the pages of books,
and all the things we thought we knew about ourselves.

At first, everything is somewhere else.
The light falls differently.
The rain sounds unfamiliar.
The conversations move around us
like a river whose language we have yet to understand.

We learn the streets.
We find our favourite corners.
We discover which cafés feel welcoming,
which roads lead to somewhere beautiful,
and which places make us feel,
for a moment, that we might belong.

And slowly, without noticing,
the unfamiliar becomes part of us.

Dr Sarina Theys

Light in What We Give

Gratitude begins in the quiet noticing:
the breath that arrives without asking,
the steady ground beneath uncertain feet,
the unseen hands that shaped the path ahead.

Guidance does not always speak loudly.
Sometimes it is a pause,
a redirection we didn’t plan,
a voice that reminds us
we are not walking alone.

And service is where gratitude becomes action:
not what we take,
but what we give forward,
not what we hold,
but what we help carry.

To be grateful is to see the gift.
To be guided is to trust the unfolding.
To serve is to become part of the light
we once needed ourselves.

Dr Sarina Theys

Not Forgotten

May the winds blow softly
and whisper in your ear,
that even across the distance,
you are never far from here.

May they carry the memories
of moments once held dear,
of words left unspoken,
and all we wish you could still hear.

For though time moves on
and paths may disappear,
some souls never truly leave us;
they remain in all we hold dear.

You are not forgotten.
In quiet thoughts, you remain near.

Dr Sarina Theys

Memories

Memories come and go,
drifting through the quiet corners of our minds,
finding their way into imaginary vessels,
where moments of yesterday are gathered and carried.

They move between tidal waves,
sometimes rising to the surface,
sometimes disappearing beneath the depths,
only to return when we least expect them.

Some arrive gently, like a familiar breeze;
others crash against the shores of our thoughts,
bringing back places, faces and words
we thought the passing of time had washed away.

And just as the tides retreat,
memories find their way home,
returning to the vastness of the ocean mind,
where nothing is ever truly lost,
only waiting to surface again.

Dr Sarina Theys

De Kracht van Sterk zijn

Sterk zijn is weten wie je bent,
en blijven groeien met de tijd.
Het is de kracht om vooruit te kijken,
met vertrouwen en vastberadenheid.

Het is de zon die na de regen verschijnt,
de bloem die telkens weer gaat bloeien.
Het is de ruimte die je jezelf geeft
om te ontdekken en te groeien.

Sterk zijn is durven dromen,
ook wanneer de horizon ver lijkt.
Het is geloven in nieuwe wegen,
en zien hoeveel je onderweg bereikt.

Het is de wereld tegemoet treden,
met een open hart en een vrije geest.
Genieten van de kleine momenten,
want juist daarin schuilt vaak het meest.

En zoals de zee steeds nieuwe kusten vindt,
en rivieren hun weg naar de oceaan,
zo blijft een sterk mens in beweging,
met vertrouwen in wat nog komen gaat.

Want sterk zijn is niet alleen weten
hoe ver je bent gekomen,
maar vooral blijven geloven
in alles wat nog groeien kan.

Dr Sarina Theys

Tussen de Regels van het Leven

Ik wandel tussen werelden,
tussen plaatsen en gedachten,
waar de horizon telkens verschuift
en nieuwe verhalen op mij wachten.

Ik draag de zee in mijn gedachten,
de wind in mijn verlangen,
en duizend vragen in mijn hoofd
die nergens hoeven te stranden.

Ik heb geleerd dat grenzen
niet altijd muren hoeven zijn.
Soms geven ze richting aan een reis,
soms beschermen ze wat kwetsbaar is,
en soms laten ze ruimte om te zijn.

Ik ontmoet mensen op mijn wegen,
sommigen blijven, anderen gaan.
Maar ieder laat iets achter,
een herinnering, een gedachte,
een stukje van mijn bestaan.

Ik zoek geen vaste antwoorden,
want het leven laat zich niet verklaren.
Sommige dingen moet je voelen,
andere moet je gewoon ervaren.

En terwijl de tijd blijft stromen,
zoals rivieren naar de zee,
blijf ik onderweg, blijf ik ontdekken,
en neem ik al mijn verhalen mee.

Misschien is dat wel wie ik ben:
een reiziger tussen land en horizon,
met mijn voeten op de aarde,
maar mijn gedachten ergens
waar de wereld nog beginnen kan.

Dr Sarina Theys

Liefde

Hoog boven het blauwe wolkendek
ontmoet ik een bijzondere man.

Nieuwsgierig kijk ik hem aan
en vraag zachtjes naar zijn naam.

Zijn ogen glinsteren als sterren
en weerspiegelen mijn verschijning.
Er ligt iets vertrouwds in zijn blik,
alsof ik hem al mijn hele leven ken.

'Mijn naam is Liefde,' zegt hij.
'Ik ben Liefde.'

'Wie mij in de ogen kijkt,
zal iets van zichzelf herkennen.
Want ik ben het stukje van jou
dat de buitenwereld ziet
wanneer ze naar je kijken.

Ik ben wat je uitstraalt,
zonder woorden te spreken.
Wat anderen voelen,
nog voordat ze je werkelijk kennen.'

En even kijk ik opnieuw in zijn ogen,
op zoek naar het antwoord.
Misschien was Liefde nooit een vreemde,
maar heeft hij mij iets laten zien
wat altijd al in mij aanwezig was.

Dr Sarina Theys