This is a poem that I drafted very roughly a couple of days ago. I’d just had some bad news and on top of feeling exhausted with work, sore with a running injury, sick and tired of living with Covid restrictions and worried about various other matters in everyday life, I think I’d just had enough. So, rather than simply explode and kick things about the place I scribbled some thoughts down.
I don’t normally suffer with my moods. I tend to manage to live life on the same level most of the time. I’m rarely too bothered by anything and have always told myself that things will work out, whatever happens to be going on. It’s definitely an advantage of being such a simpleton! However, over the last few weeks lots of things seem to have been bothering me and it sees to have all piled up and caused a bit of a bad mood logjam. Not the end of the world and at least it’s meant that I can be creative.
Here’s the poem.
Tunnel Vision Feral dogs gather, sensing blood, teeth bared snarling, putting a tentative foot forward, circling without grace, eyeing you constantly until they finally snap and leave their mark. Every ache and pain nags and presents a new question, crowds the mind, leaving a feeling of fog until you feel like lashing out with a primal scream from somewhere deep inside that you've never found before. Questions, although answered time and again remain, echoing back and forth, disrupting sleep to pick away at the scab that they created, allowing it to spread to unchartered territory. Tunnel vision is adopted, just to get through seconds, minutes as something hidden in the shadows threatens to grind you to a halt like hazard lights on the motorway, just as the urge for freedom and speed is at its highest. Searching for a way to break the cycle and feel a sense of achievement, or at least a moment's blessed relief from the sheer boredom and strangely gargantuan effort needed to just keep going.
Writing this helped. It’s very easy to sit and moan at anyone who’ll listen, but I much prefer to keep things to myself. It’s a mixture of embarrassment and just the thought that I don’t really want to burden anyone with my troubles. Especially as most of the time I feel like I’m exaggerating in even labelling certain things as ‘troubles’. I know that lots of people have things much, much harder than I do. And as I said earlier, I’m reasonably happy to get through and operate under the assumption that any mood will pass and that things will get better.
In the poem, I’ve tried to describe how I felt; as if the thoughts, the worries were circling me, taking turns at bothering me and bothering me on various levels and with various results. Hence the ‘feral dogs’ line which I felt summed up the fact that I didn’t feel like I had complete control at times and didn’t feel that I could just dismiss things. Those thoughts just kept coming back, biting me.
If it helps, or it’s of any interest, I think I feel better today. I’m just keeping myself busy and it definitely helps that the weather is great, I’ve been able to get out for a run and that the Euro 2020 international football tournament has just started. Like I say, I’m happy to keep things simple.
I hope you liked the poem – ‘enjoyed’ might be a stretch I suppose! Whatever your thoughts, feel free as ever, to let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading.
It resonated with me. I understand! Words are healing.
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Thank you.
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You’re welcome!
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This poem definitely resonated with me. I think it’s great that you can turn your feelings into something positive . I would imagine you can read and reflect on this period of time in the years to come when these feelings are not so raw. Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks Jodie. I’m lucky that I have a lot of great people around me.
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