Our world is full of indecision
There are too many voices in each ear
Blue lights overshadowing our vision
More overstimulation every year
Far too many choices to consider
Self help books, influencers, and podcasts
My peace of mind to the highest bidder
One after another, it never lasts
With attention spans to weak to hold on
Mental exhaustion and burnout is real
Depression and anxiety will spawn
And a suicidal fate we will seal
True inner peace comes from a quiet soul
So less distractions will make our hearts whole
Grey November, sigh-
ashen, you'll soon lie
dead in Fall attire
decay dulls your fire-
wait again for light
as first snow spreads white
I sit alone in the silence of the night.
With the light shining through.
Just for you.
The light stares at you.
If only you were here.
If only you hadn’t gone too soon.
Perhaps the silence of the night wouldn’t be so heavy for me.
I don’t wanna stand still but I can’t move forward.
I’m stuck on myself and everything I have done.
I don’t think I can forgive myself.
I know I have no business getting any redemption this time.
Buckets sloshed out onto the ground.
I reached with fingers that seemed scraggly.
Snapped my fingers and they almost fell off.
With a “snap” I can taste in mysterious ways.
Gradual eye opening.
Stuff is pouring like clutter.
Whatever, stuff, things, words.
Depression helps me do stuff…
So if I’m slow moving?
I’m already feeling a thumb tack in my foot…
Just got too weary to take it out…
It was just easier to….
Take a slow moving nap.
Dump out stuff, things, blah.
Guess what? With depression, you don’t nap.
You just wake up,
Buckets sloshing onto the ground.
That’s how you get up.
Contest Name: 1501 Sept 2026 part 4x4'
Sponsor Brian Strand
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How I hunger for the connection
that I always break
or fail to make.
Its absence is an emptiness
invading my personal space.
Deafening silence rings my ears
and making my head throb and ache.
Whether surrounded by people or all on my own, there's no change
Though its presence is unwelcome, it persists to overstay.
Insistent that within its grasp
is where, forever, I shall remain.
Imprisoned behind the bars
of its isolating ways.
Feeling crushed beneath the heaviness of its invisible chains.
Wheezing shallow breaths, suffocating and in pain.
Asking, telling, screaming, yelling; it just won't go away.
Neither will it set me free nor permit me to escape.
Sentenced my whole lifetime as its intimate inmate.
Inadequate;
The word resonates with sickening intensity
All through my life I've had to be my own advocate
I've battled for myself with staggering immensity
The clashing of swords, the beating of drums,
I fight for myself despite the outcomes
I'm withered and weary, battle-worn and aching
I throw down my arms, finally forsaking
But I get right back up despite my depression
I knock down my foes now in quick succession
The war rages on, heartbreakingly perpetual
How much can I bear? My defeat is eventual
One day, I will be knocked down,
And as I rest on the earth, on the cold bloodied ground,
I'll smile in my defeat,
Because now my demons have finally been beat.
TIGER EYE
Far
Inside your eyes
Captive caged denied
A tiger paces time
The hurt laid upon
A whip and satin glove
A shadow of what was
Far
Inside your eyes
I hear a distant cry
Now forgotten why
It sadly slowly dies
I want to miss my kids
I want to see my hair no crumbs or cheese whiz
I want to enjoy healthy friendships
outings like camping and family things
me plus one for a change
I’m so tired of doing everything on my own
I’m always that single mom who’s alone
no partner, no man, just me,
Here I am
no other family, just a loner.
the judge me like a park perv with a *****
the way they look at me, like they pity me,
It was healthier than living with his violent mistakes
No sorry is good enough
When a man treats you worse than his stuff
Society sees a woman that can’t keep a man
They don’t see a woman strong enough to stand
Alone without allowing the disrespect to go on
Every carnival, every movie, every oil change, every bill I pay
Every flat tire every mile
every family photo a forced smile
the biggest lie ever sold
is too tell a woman she can have it all alone
she’s ripped apart shredded at each end
not knowing where she ends and the kids begin
night from day’
far from child's play
but something like a living nightmare
every lonely not long enough exhausted no rest day
I have a thousand problems,
Yet the desire to live still remains.
Employment has killed my dreams,
Responsibility has buried my love.
Friends drifted away on the journey of youth,
For a little money, we moved far away from our city.
The house where I spent my childhood,
My youth was spent keeping that house running.
The one who once ran away from time,
Today runs alongside time.
The one who once lived among gatherings,
Today lives in solitude.
The one who was once his mother’s beloved,
Today has become the support for his mother’s two daily meals.
The one who once lived for himself,
Suddenly began living for his loved ones.
Who knows where youth does not take a person,
The one who once never stepped outside his home now takes months to return home.
Who knows what his youth taught him,
That even the boy who was once spoiled began shouldering responsibilities.
They aren't the key to anything
But they put the key in your hand
Nothing to unlock or access
You may wobble
But you'll still stand....
Could you stand it?
To be alright-
To be ok without being
When you plan it
You build a kite
Untethered to what you're seeing.
Tattered mind.
Numb stuff in my teeth, and nails.
The sacrifice melted me.
When you jolt into yourself.
You assume brain fog will jump out at you as an apparition.
It’s really just swiping off rust with a puzzle underneath that I’m too tired to solve.
Zap.
You slip down the rope you were climbing like a sleepy caterpillar.
Plucking away at strands.
Tattered.
You go back inward like there’s fresh baked bread inside.
An empty chair and the twilight,
Falling leaves adrift in the air,
Confetti for the coming night,
To doleful drizzle unaware.
The sun setting in wounded streaks,
A decadence in confinement,
Birds on leafless boughs, so weak,
How were those days of mine spent?
Please don't die on me yet,
Why don't you look and be near?
To a drooping silhouette,
I'm the one imprisoned here.
Surviving the penitence,
That's how to lose a stake,
It's me who passed the sentence,
For the king of mistake.
An empty chair and the twilight,
The early carols sound bleak,
For a heart alone in the night,
Like a fallen leaf that cannot speak.
November 14, 2004
I float along the peaceful stream.
Will I stay put? I cannot scream; I’m only a petal, a petal can dream.
It’s bliss like the rays,
From the river to the bays,
Why am I so afraid?
For I glide and paddle my way to my feet; every raindrop sounds what I cannot keep.
When darkness looms,
My nothingness blooms.
Shadows create devils, hell’s gate.
I float along a peaceful stream, a petal can dream, but this petal screams.
Depression.
Sticks and seeds.
You can only be as depressed as a mossy stone.
Growls.
You move slowly, like dead.
Treacherous?
Or just socks stuffed with free samples.
Try to hold onto dead teeth.
Depression is just burrows.
Sticks, seeds, harsh chemicals, scraps, and jugs.
Not special.
Depression Categories
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anxiety, clinical, cope with, dark, deep, hope, inspirational, loneliness, love, metaphor, sad, slam, overcoming, rhyme
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Definition | What is Depression in Poetry?
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Related Poetry Forms
distress, downheartedness, unhappiness, desperation, bummer, melancholy, heavyheartedness, heaviness of heart, bottom out, hard times, rainy days,