Tag: Depression

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.

Love, Poetry, Writing7 Comments

Fools’ Gold. A poem.

Laidback DM

The road smouldered as steel-tread fingers ran over it, each car an indifferent lover. Nothing was out of the ordinary but the extraordinary. I could no longer look upon you, the pain too sharp, a constant thorn. My cannibal hypocrisy consumed me with self-deception. One last glance (you, the diamond amongst coal) and I drove away into the hazy mid-afternoon grey. That was the day. The day I let my muse fade. The day I turned from you, away. I realised dreams were mirrors and reflections, untouchable and jaded. I wanted tears, but an empty shell holds no water. No … Continue reading Fools’ Gold. 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.

Love, Poetry, Writing15 Comments

When (part 3). A poem.

Laidback DM

When will I be free of this life and all its bitter swill? Force fed, every grueling meal mixed with bile and contempt, returned to sender in a spray of misgivings, a spent force that paints the tile in acrimonious colour. When will this life leave me be, so I can rest in audacious peace? When will I sleep and dream of nothing, free from pain and imagination that only ever led me astray. When will I break the chains you locked me in, through no fault of your own. When will I leave this sad and weary shell behind, … Continue reading When (part 3). A poem.

Love, Poetry, Writing7 Comments

When (part 2). A poem.

Laidback DM

When did I lose you? When did I turn my back on you, then turned around and you were gone? When did any hint of recognition leave your eyes. When did I become a third wheel, constantly turning out of place in time and space. When did this supple heart grow dried and worn, to wither in the sun like a weed. When did I lose the will to be with you, let the scales unbalance and my love be cast aside in bitter rebuke. When will I ever learn? Continue reading When (part 2). A poem.

Love, Poetry, Writing15 Comments

When (part 1). A poem.

Laidback DM

When I talk to you, when I’m lost to the sanguine artfulness of your words. When your silken, soothing tones surround me like the warmest winter blanket. When the only light I need to guide me is in your rainbow eyes and sunshine smile. When the aspect of your face is the only solitary star in the darkening sky. That’s when I know I’m home. And that’s when I awake and know I’m still alone. Continue reading When (part 1). A poem.

Love, Poetry, Writing27 Comments

Game Over. A poem.

Laidback DM

I’ve tried to forget you (I don’t want to forget you). My emotions lay on the table like spilt wine; I tried to lick them up in a desperate alcoholic binge, without a care for my fellow patrons’ regard. Why are you fading from my mind, like an Alzheimer memory, like the seaside whispers of a shell, broken to pieces. I’ve betrayed me, so. I’ve let you go. I should let slip the dogs of war to chew on my weary bones, to remind me that I’m just a lonely man, that you’re just a lonely woman and that soon … Continue reading Game Over. A poem.

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.

Love, Poetry, Writing16 Comments

Phantom Limb. A poem.

Laidback DM

I’m forever haunted by this phantom limb, writhing in my sleep, guilt stricken for my sins. I see you in every couple on the street, and at the coffee shop, where we drank each other in. It feels like you’re still across from me; the conversation, imagined and forlorn, accusing eyes that follow me no more. Your ghost absorbs my days and nights, a peripheral blur, just out of sight. Time heals all wounds; such perfect sense, but not in my experience. You’re the limb I lost, that still persists. A phantom limb, my will insists. Continue reading Phantom Limb. A poem.