---
the pauses between heartbreak and ---
---
-
---
(that's the sound I long to hear)
---
-
---
(every once in a while, at least)
---
-
---
(the sound of little to nothing)
---
-
---
(no interference, no radiostatic)
---
-
---
(perhaps a little babbling brook)
---
-
---
(just for the cliché, tranquillity)
---
-
---
(gentle, distant bird song choral)
---
-
---
(our rhythmic drum-drum heartbeats)
---
-
---
(a breeze that is almost soundless)
---
-
---
(augmented by the scent of heather)
---
-
---
-
---
(just breathe, sit, breathe, just)
---
-
Slipping
slipping and sliding
sliding and dipping
in and out in and out
different
different and difficult
difficult and dissonant
in and out in and out
rare
rare is a compliment
well meaning, asinine
rare is a crux, a falsity
a façade with which to hide
hide from the fact I'll never
be, anything other than me, but
breathe
---
-
---
-
take two pills
bitter my throat
calms my nerves
eats my anxiety
soothes the intrusion
but never cures
I
I
---
-
---
- I just am
Just am holding on
Holding on tightly
so the ropes and the metal
imprint and break my skin
remind me I'm alive and fighting
still fighting
flailing a lot, but never failing completely
falling a lot, but never reaching the bottom
I should... we should
---
-
--
--
-
---
Write a book, a memoir
not all tales are worth telling
but who decides
I need to be more than just me
the constant battle to be
---
-
---
-
better?
---
-
---
-
Just breathe
---
Maybe the point is there's no point, maybe the point is that there is a point but it's not really a point that we think is the actual point.
---
Maybe we are chasing a point that is more rounded and haphazard, jagged and varied than we thought?
---
-
On the days when the light is too bright and the world too... everything
I sit on my chair, my favourite chair, and wile away the hours of nothing
as the world turns, the world learns, disarms, burns, and chaos reigns
I just sit.
Sit in my own little bubble. I won't say happy, never say happy, because
it's a trap.
it's my trap.
---
-
Just---
be---
---
-
---
-
---
(just breathe, sit, breathe, just be)
*
Thanks for reading
About the Creator
Paul Stewart
Award-Winning Writer, Poet, Scottish-Italian, Subversive.
The Accidental Poet - Poetry Collection out now!
Streams and Scratches in My Mind coming soon!
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Where's the Glory?
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By Cathy Schieffelin4 days ago in Humor
Comments (13)
Man I really like this. Great work my friend
Maybe the point is there's no point, maybe the point is that there is a point but it's not really a point that we think is the actual point. That really got me Paul! I have often felt that in my overactive anxious moments - excellently captured.
(Exhale ) Power - full! Poem!
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Perfect.
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Strip away our veneer and what remains? How unguarded and unmasked must one be to write something like this? My eyes are wet and I sting all over having read it. What must you have felt writing it I cannot imagine.
It is always intriguing to be privy to the quiet machinations of the royal mind, just breathing, my liege.
This may be one of my most favorite poems yet. My friends own a piece of land up in the mountains that we visit once a year. There's a little path down to the river where there's a little porch swing I love to sit on and let my mind float away to stories I haven't yet discovered, I think through things big and small and find myself. Reading this poem felt like sitting there, in silence, with just a babbling brook to carry my mind away. I drifted off to contemplate what I should write, what's the point, then to sigh in contentment and just breathe. Really excellent.
Excellently done! It I does feel like a never-ending search for silence
Excellent use of dashes and white space. I could feel the silence, both freeing and oppressing. This is such a bittersweet poem. Thank you for sharing it with us. *hugs*
I felt this in my soul, it took me to a quiet place in the mountains, near the river, far from civilization. Where silence and peace are intertwined as one. It sounds like you let the thoughts flow through your fingers unfiltered, bringing truth to life and feeling to sentences. Great job broadening your horizons! This is a lovely poem.
so calming and bittersweet