Our roads are different,
Mine silent, secluded, ignored
cobble-stone and covered
with strangling vines,
nursing red roses with thorns
that in time, everytime, It appears
when I think, pricks, and
with each prick I fall, fast, flat
on the ground. My face with round
charcoal bruises
and yet, your road seems to be...

Of marble, slick, sleek, and bold.
Your air of illumnince unfolds
where white lilies dance with you
down the path, where, fellows line up
mesmorized by your unflawed beauty.
You absorb their snobbery as if,
without notice, there wouldn't be anymore.
For at the end of the road, the lilies die,
and you, along with the marbled path, cracks.

Just a poem I just wrote from a challenge on my network www.wink-ryze.com  that a member started. But it's true. I display my pain, my mental agony whereas, other cover it up, and act like nothing is wrong, but there is, and when they go home they break down. And, also, how my life, my road seems to be down and i get "charcoal bruises" and other times, it appears nothing could go wrong and yet, in the end, something does. 

It took me two minutes to write this piece...

Christina

Nice peom Christina.
When I was going through a lot of issues in my life with mental health isssues , I started to draw paintings to express myself I guess.
Here is the link to some of the paintings I scanned and put up on my website.
http://members.dodo.net.au/keithrank2/HomePage/keithpage10files/page10.html
Cheers Keith.

Thanks for the compliment and i will check your site out.

 

christina hymes

Excellent poem, Christina. I can surely relate. I have depression, and most of the time it's well controlled, but recently, my 13-year-old daughter had started cutting herself.  She is a wonderful artist, and at first it was hard for me to understand why she would cut herself instead of expressing herself through her drawings.

My daughter has depression, too. Hers just manifests itself differently. She draws things that seem very dark in nature, but she is amazing.

When you have a talent like poetry or other forms of art, it seems to help get the feelings out. I find it seems to lend power to us, that we can feel we have accomplished something, rather than feeling totally hopeless and useless.

Keep writing! It's wonderful.

Darlene

Thanks for the compliment, Darlene. Soemtimes writing poetry or doing art isn't enough to release the mental pain we feel inside. Cutting ironically releases that. It is hard to understand. Becuase depression can be so confusing, alot of the times you can't find reasons for the agony, and thus you create an reason on your body. instead of mental pain there is physical pain, thus distracts the mind from the emotional pain. I would like to  offer some help for your daughter by becoming lieka big sister. I've done it int he past and it is 80% effective. There are often underlying issues about our day or even week or month that contribute how we feel emotional. Now becuase i am bipolar it's a bit different however, i have been able to train myself to think about and examine what has gone on during the day to bring me to grounding myself from time to time. Grounding mean, find a medium balance even in a short time. You too can try to practice this. I'd really love to do this.

Christina