Category: Mental Health

Love, Mental Health, Poetry, Writing10 Comments

The Sadness. A poem.

Laidback DM

The sadness creeps over, a ponderous behemoth, encompassing my lands and being. It seeps into my streams, polluting them with its murky ill-will, making a mockery and a mire. It kills off my grass and trees, turning my greens to blight, leaving animals once proud and determined now abject and homeless; caricature mascots. It crawls over my buildings, infesting every room and board, making inhabitants into castaways with the shore so near, so far. And everything collapses under the weight of its load, a gravity far too serious for this light head(ed) over heels, a Hercules turned weakling, bent knee … Continue reading The Sadness. A poem.

Mental Health, Poetry, Writing20 Comments

Frost. A poem.

Laidback DM

I live in surreality, not quite alive, not quite dead. I wander from one point to the next, a confused and weary traveller, conspicuously without intent. The pleasures of the material and the impractical align in tacit disapproval. I am a wanderer in confusion, lost in the blizzard of bodies, grabbing myself for warmth like a frost-bitten seeker faced with his last insurmountable peak. Someday this journey will be done, and the last thing I see, may be the first I ever saw. As if all that mattered was the concentric circle I travelled in and the hoarfrost patina on … Continue reading Frost. A poem.

haiku, Mental Health, Poetry, Writing6 Comments

Haiku Friday. ‘Bereft’, a haiku trilogy.

Laidback DM

Bereft. A haiku trilogy. 1. Ebb The last ebb of life, seeping like sweat from my pores. Let it go, you fool. 2. Ash My heart is sliced from my chest, burned alive; all feeling, now ash. 3. Bereft My solution lost upon a sea bereft of possibility. . Well, I hope you’ve had a better week than me. Steve 🙂 Continue reading Haiku Friday. ‘Bereft’, a haiku trilogy.

Dating, Mental Health, Poetry, Writing14 Comments

Peak. A poem.

Laidback DM

You conquered me like a mountain (or a molehill). Climbed me and then left me here, another spire to aspire to. Was I just a rocky crag used as a monument to your success? What was my reward, just a wanton moment, better to forget? Here I stand, wind blown and forever circumspect, a peak waiting on another expedition. Hopefully, one that’ll show me more respect. My first book of poetry, The All or the Nothing, is available now as an e-book from most online distributors. To find out more, click here. Continue reading Peak. A poem.

Love, Mental Health, Poetry, Writing2 Comments

Love Never Sleeps. A prose poem.

Laidback DM

Are you faded and fated, to pass from memory as if you were an afterimage on grainy film stock? Or consume me whole like Jonah’s whale, where I will suffer forever and a day? I have wanted/needed you so desperately that I could not move or breathe without you taking control of me, like some mad puppeteer, pulling strings while I dance to some obscure polka tune. Why should I forget you? You, who stole anxious days and nights of worry, where my thoughts betrayed me and I wondered constantly if you hoped and dreamed (like me) or even felt … Continue reading Love Never Sleeps. A prose poem.

Love, Mental Health, Poetry, Writing5 Comments

Sometimes. A poem.

Laidback DM

Sometimes when I’m by myself and the night has swept daydreams away, like dust from polished floors; when lights click off and the house settles in with creaks and purrs of contentment. Sometimes, I wonder where you are and whether I’m in your consideration. And sometimes, when my mind plays trick or treat with facile retribution, I want you here to play those games in person. Continue reading Sometimes. A poem.

haiku, Mental Health, Poetry, Writing13 Comments

Haiku Friday. Anxiety. A Haiku Trilogy.

Laidback DM

Anxiety. A haiku trilogy. 1. Harbinger Tingling on your skin, harbinger of darker things. The skies open wide. 2. Run Run while you still can, ‘fore this acid rain melts you. Too much weight to bear. 3. Hide You can’t hide from this. A pall hangs over you that doggedly consumes. I suffer from anxiety, but manage it much more effectively now than I did a few years ago. These haikus are for all the anxiety sufferers out there. Stay strong Steve 🙂 My first book of poetry, The All or the Nothing, is available now as an e-book from … Continue reading Haiku Friday. Anxiety. A Haiku Trilogy.

Mental Health, Poetry, Writing65 Comments

Tired. A poem.

Laidback DM

I’m tired. And my drifting aimless gaze settles on a distant mist-like haze that wells up continuously inside, like savage, misplaced pride, and makes me drop like a stone into waters unknown. Lost on cruel tides that wend the capitulating ocean to its end. So tired. If only sleep could solve this quandary, instead of leaving me on the periphery of a world that spins aimlessly, through head space and trickery, and leaves me wanting nothing less. And nothing more. Just tired. Time to leave this place. Steve is a literal starving artist. Please keep the dream of poetry alive … Continue reading Tired. A poem.

Fatherhood, Mental Health, Poetry, Writing11 Comments

Through His Eyes. A poem.

Laidback DM

See the world. But not through your own eyes. Try his. Try seeing and yet not seeing, failing to understand what they truly perceive. Messed up signals, like a traffic jam waiting to happen. Open your mouth, like his mouth, and watch the words tumble out: unannounced, tactless and indiscreet; a crossword of errors on a big broadsheet. Walk alone, not by yourself, but like him: truly alone, like the world has eaten you up and spat you out. Deserted, when you truly needed love instead of doubt. This is how he feels. So extend a hand. Feel with him. … Continue reading Through His Eyes. A poem.

Mental Health, Poetry, Writing8 Comments

Dead Men Deep. A poem.

Laidback DM

Hulls of broken ships, scattered like white noise. The sea bed, as black as a charcoal cellar. It welcomes sailors to their ends, bloated corpses sleeping in hammocks of crusted ribs, drunk on briny, antique wine. Coral wreaths and sawdust mouths; barnacles, the new tattoo that marks the passage from man to martyr. Here among the starfish and crustacean shells, unworried by the weather, seabed tales in whale song punctuate their empty dreams. Continue reading Dead Men Deep. A poem.

Mental Health, Poetry, Writing9 Comments

City of the Lost. A poem.

Laidback DM

I looked to the city. The lights were on, but nobody was home. I was alone. I expected dust devils to whirl as I walked through my world. Behind every door a Marie Celeste, of empty chairs and still full plates. Always alone. Wherever I looked reigned emptiness, yesterday’s news and mild distress. The dust and dirt of memories clung to my walls like tragedy. And then the lights went out. That was when I knew, without a doubt: I would always be alone. But what was always there, that I just couldn’t see, were all the souls surrounding me. Continue reading City of the Lost. A poem.

Mental Health, Writer Interrupted, Writing4 Comments

The Art of Observation, Character, Dialogue and Navel Gazing. An occasional post on writing.

Laidback DM

Do you suffer from depression? If so, you’ll know the Black Dog. If not, click here or here before reading on.  An Observation on Observation Every writer should be an observer. Every writer should watch the people around them, taking … Continue reading The Art of Observation, Character, Dialogue and Navel Gazing. An occasional post on writing.