Read DIchotomies: Poetry From Bipolar Disorder Page 6


  I've lost it all to this beast once more

  I've lost what we had, of that I am sure

  I place all the blame on this little beastie

  Yet this much I know, the beast he is me

  The Blending Of The Days

  One day flows into the other

  Never different, always the same

  Yet some are filled with joy

  And the others filled with pain

  They blend together in a big blur

  Mixed together as if in a blender

  I can't tell them apart, not a one

  It drives me to go off on a bender

  Anything to differentiate these days

  To keep them from running together

  Sometimes I wonder why I care

  It's all the same, even the weather

  Nothing ever changes, day in day out

  Nothing but the pain, here today

  But gone tomorrow, always threatening

  Like a sword of Damocles dangling away

  Today is what? Just another day

  I can't even tell the day of the week

  Just give me a way to tell them apart

  Because it's not surcease I seek

  Does the sun shine down

  with it's everlasting light?

  Else I just cannot tell

  Is it day or is it night?

  Is it me or is it not?

  There's no telling them apart

  These days that run on

  Blurred together right from the start

  The only differences in the day are that there's

  Happiness one day the very next there's the pain

  Never an end to it, it goes round and round

  It all makes the tears run down, falling like rain

  All mixed and jumbled up in my head

  Why can I not tell these days apart?

  I'm not dimwitted, nor close to stupid

  If I say so myself I am quite smart

  First the pain, then the joy

  Next thing I'm feeling so numb

  Yes the blending of the days

  Makes me feel worse then dumb

  The Blossom Failing (Haiku)

  The blossom failing

  Overcome by gravity

  Giving all, it ends

  The Debt Is Mine To Pay

  He came for us sinners

  Now we are the winners

  That's what we are told

  But if I may be so bold

  I will not add my missteps

  Lay them on His doorsteps

  Adding to His inhuman pain

  Would be totally beyond insane

  I am the one who failed

  Yet He the one impaled

  The debt is mine to pay

  Not His, never, no way

  When that bill comes due

  The judge I'll answer to

  The Cheshire Cat

  When is it ok to give it all up?

  When is it ok to be all alone?

  Is it possible to do this

  Without having to atone?

  How many years must go by

  Before you're locked in?

  When leaving it all is

  nothing but a sin?

  How much wasted time must go by?

  Does it ever get any easier

  To say good by

  without feeling sleazier?

  How much of my life

  Must I give to this lie?

  For how many years

  Must I continue to try?

  How much despair

  Must I continue to take?

  For how much time

  Must I live a fake?

  How many times

  must I set myself aside?

  How many times

  Must I continue to hide?

  When do I count?

  when does it matter?

  I feel like the Cheshire cat

  Or even the mad hatter.

  I've given my life

  To this mad tea party

  It's not fun anymore

  It never was hardy

  How much must I take

  Before I let go?

  How much more happen

  Before I say no?

  Soon all that's left

  Will be my fake smile

  Pasted on my face

  Like a ceramic tile

  I'll wither away

  And vanish in the air

  But my smile will stay

  And I won't even care

  Like the Cheshire cat

  All that's left is my smile

  The rest of me lays

  on the floor in a pile

  That smile's been glued

  on my face forever

  It's not real you know

  It is whatever

  The Dying Of The Light

  The darkness approaches time after time

  It comes without reason, it comes without rhyme

  Slowly it creeps up to my soul

  To attack it without a drum roll

  With stealth and cunning it sneaks up on me

  To try to best me before it I can see

  It can't be stopped, it comes like the tide

  There is no escape, nowhere to hide

  I sense it's coming, I'm not unaware

  That onward it creeps right over there

  Raise the drawbridge, lock up the gates

  This is the onslaught that my heart hates

  Even to my last breath will I fight

  Battle to halt the dying of the light

  The Darkness Within Me

  The darkness within me

  It never goes away

  It fills my life

  Each night and day

  It turns good into bad

  It makes joy into pain

  Tears flow down my face

  Like never ending rain

  Sunlight never falls

  Clean winds never blow

  I'm trapped in the land

  Of hell from below

  The darkness within me

  It defines all my life

  It turns all pleasure

  Into nothing but strife

  No shadows are here

  For that you need light

  None of that shines here

  Look hard as you might

  It's blacker then hell

  Not the velvety black

  The blackness of death

  It is darker then black

  The darkness within me

  All my world it destroys

  It sucks all the life

  Out of all of my joys

  It's nothing but pain

  Joyless and dark

  There never is light

  Not one little spark

  It fills all my thoughts

  And devours my soul

  Gnaws away at my ego

  Like a huge evil troll

  The darkness within me

  Consumes me you see

  It's replaced all that's here

  It defines all that's me

  The Elevator

  Riding the elevator from the sub sub sub basement

  The tinkle of inanity wafts from the speaker grill

  Intended to distract from a most alarming fact

  The lack of a door is a frighteningly bitter pill

  It's roots deeply buried in the cold, dank pit

  Warmed not at all by the searing flames of hell

  That blacken heart, soul and mind turned on a spit

  Until evil agony and despair inside you upwell

  The other end far removed way up out of sight

  Buffeted by gales, ceaseless blasts of thunder

  Jagged cracks of wild bolts of lightning's energy

  Ever threatening to rip the structure asunder

  There are no stops between pit and spire

  Not one single pause in the relentless rise

  At times it creeps but others it rockets

  A se
amless cube on a path into the skies

  Don't let distraction elude the most vital fact

  Despite shooting up above all things around

  Eternally heed this most dire of warnings

  What goes up must inevitably come back down

  The Eternal Battle

  The lines formed bravely upon the field

  Trumpets sounded and drummers rolled

  Tender youths determined not to yield

  Faced each other in attitudes so bold

  One side dressed in white and shining gold

  Bravely bathed in warm sunshine so bright

  Standing forth for right in lines so bold

  Willingly they'll bleed for what is right

  Opposing forces wrapped in darkest black

  The grave's own chill hidden by the night

  Hating the light they are eager to attack

  To assert mastery over the denizens of light

  Bugles sound and so begins the endless fight

  Chaos reigns, death has come, a river of blood

  Will life win out or shall come eternal blight

  The price, the pain, the red flows in a flood

  Crimson fields upon which the battle does rage

  The blood that flows from the drum's first roll

  Each side steadfastly refusing to disengage

  They war and bleed and die to be master of my soul

  The Eyes In The Mirror

  Not warm

  Not cold

  No invitation

  Repulsive

  Soulless

  Lifeless

  Empty

  Gateways to hell

  Devoid of everything

  Dead

  Where did they come from?

  Who do they belong to?

  Why do they stare at me?

  What do they see?

  Who do they see?

  Or do they see anything at all?

  The Fog

  Cold, damp, musty fog comes creeping

  Blotting the light across the landscape

  Into life's bones the chill is seeping

  Muffles the soul with a thick gray cape

  All about are dim shapes without form

  Colorless specters of what once had been

  Twisting and swirling as they transform

  Fade away as their substance grows thin

  A cold lightless universe of thick gray

  Direction and distance lose all import

  In stasis or moving impossible to say

  Is it a long way to go or is it so short

  The Invisible Man

  Faces look but they don't see

  The jagged shards inside of me

  Not a soul even dares to ask

  Just what is behind the mask

  Buried deep behind iron walls

  No one hears the pleading calls

  To keep them safe from me at least

  Those walls protect them from the beast

  Among all souls across the land

  I am in indeed an invisible man

  The Geometry Of The Cycles

  Can you picture the steep and craggy alps?

  Lately that has been the sine wave

  Of the hated beast driven cycles

  That drove me deep into the cave

  Depression and mania bringing madness

  Like blitzkreig warfare against my mind

  Frequency and amplitude ever rising

  Until peace I just couldn't find

  The beast raging completely unchecked

  Alien thoughts and emotions filled me

  Slicing bloody ribbons from my soul

  No matter what they refused to let me be

  To the cave I went and dumped it all

  In self defense to keep me sane

  Poured out all of the madness

  Left behind all of the pain

  Until the frequency and amplitude

  Eventually gentled and began to wane

  Like Pa's gently rolling foothills

  Allowing me to again feel sane

  Now the sine wave has morphed into a line

  Just above the center of the scale

  Mild hypomania is now ruling all

  That's all there is to this tale

  Except to tell you that at last

  I've left the cave for the world

  And the light and love there contained

  And hope's flag is once again unfurled

  The Hand Of The Fates

  Jagged, sharp flashes of light, crash, boom

  Spears from on high, pronouncements of doom

  Eyes rattling deep in their sockets

  Fists clenched tighter deep in pockets

  Gale force winds uprooting the trees

  The demon smiles at what he sees

  As the solid earth splits asunder

  He knows this soul is his to plunder

  No more just ahead does madness wait

  It's swallowed all, it's now too late

  Claws shredding pale skin on the face

  Bright red rivulets downward race

  In a tree a dangling noose grimly waits

  Irresistible, it's the hand of the fates

  The Land Of The Lost

  The land is dark as midnight on a moonless night

  in the middle of the sea

  The landscape empty and barren as the great salt flats

  Nothing grows there, nothing lives there

  It is a lifeless land, full only of pain

  Light never reaches it, life never touches it

  It is empty and shall always remain so

  It is the land of the lost

  To enter this terrain is to give up your life

  To a life of loneliness and pain

  Abandon all hope all you who enter for there is no escape

  The land will suck you dry,

  It drains the very life from you

  It doesn't respect what you've done in life

  Nor who you love or who loves you

  It matters not what you've accomplished

  It will eat you

  A lone figure strides this land,

  full of the pain delivered by the land

  More dead then alive the figure roams

  The land looking for escape

  But escape is not to be found

  Soul as empty as the land,

  The figure knows no hope of surcease

  Lost in this land it would welcome even death

  Anything to escape the pain

  The figure roams the land

  And is as empty and lost as the land itself

  There is no light for this figure

  Not from without, nor from within

  It's soul is black as the night of the land

  Nowhere to turn, it matters not where it roams

  No release, no comfort, no help, no hope

  It is as lost as the land itself

  It yearns for the release of death,

  Anything to escape the land within which it's trapped

  It longs for the joy of a welcoming voice,

  The comfort of a firm handshake

  The peace and contentment of a loving heart

  Someone to love and to be loved by

  A friend on whose shoulder to cry,

  To release some of the terrible pain

  To break the loneliness,

  To fill the emptiness

  A light to push back the darkness

  Who is this pitiful figure?

  Who is it that is trapped in this dreadful land?

  Who is it that is lost in this vast emptiness?

  Who is it that has to struggle so to maintain hope

  In such a hopeless and joyless land?

  Who is this sorrowful figure,

  So bereft of comfort and joy,

  So lost in the darkness of this land?

  Who is this lost figure?

  It is I.

  The Light At The End Of The Storm


  During a thunderstorm the sky is dark and full of clouds

  Filling the sky from end to end they bump together

  And lightning bolts are released! KABOOM! goes the thunder!

  The wind, whipped by the storm, thrashes your hair and pulls at your

  clothes

  It nearly bowls you over in it's intensity and ferocity

  The rain pours down in buckets, droplets big as a nickel

  Sometimes hail bounces off the sidewalk

  And all the while the dark lumbering clouds loom threateningly overhead

  You feel their weight even more then the rain soaked jacket upon your

  shoulders

  They weigh heavily not just on your body but on your very soul

  They hang there, dark, foreboding, causing your spirit to cringe at

  their evil intent

  The ferocity of nature unleashed.

  But then the storm ends.

  Slowly the wind dies

  The hail ends, the rain trickles to a stop

  The clouds begin to break up

  And like a promise from God the sun breaks through

  It's rays form a halo where they shoot through the clouds

  The sun peeps out, shy at first but ever more confidently

  Light falls upon the earth below and your spirit soars

  The weight on your soul lifts and you feel like you could dance for joy

  All is right with the world. Nature is once again at peace.

  That's exactly where I am right now.

  The storm has ended and the sun's rays shine down upon me

  Life has returned to my soul and my spirit soars

  I am at peace as the peace of the world seeps into my bones.

  I've weathered this one and it was very violent in nature

  This has not been the worst storm I've had thrown at me

  But it ranks up there with them.

  I have seen the sunlight follow the storm and I know

  I've made it through this one, I can make it through the next

  And the next, and the one after that

  For always there is an end to the storm and the sun shines forth again

  I feel God's promise. Never will He give me more then I can handle, with