Everyone on the planet has a dark side. Sometimes we have low points in our lives which threaten to overwhelm. Sometimes, in the darkest hour you gain great clarity, sometimes only despair. After just such a time in my life, long ago, I wrote this poem. I found it cathartic at the time. I look back now and wonder how I managed to get so low. I am never that low now.
Poetry is not always about beauty. We need, sometimes, to see darkness to appreciate light.
Live well,
Ollie Lind
Torment
Torment
Ever since I can remember
I have been thinking alone.
Images flashing, ideas crashing
no control, a life of their own.
I try to order what I do
and what I say as well.
But thoughts are random,
not in tandem, I may as well
be in hell.
I try to escape and shut them out
voices rushing all about.
Whispers flouting, screaming, shouting,
I scream and scream. Nothing comes out.
To sleep, no dream to dream,
is more than I dare hope.
Voices pealing, ever stealing,
the hangman with his rope.
Can peace be found from raucous sound,
the mental clamour clangs.
A slave instead, inside my head,
the tin drum bangs and bangs.
Alcohol numbs my mind,
giving temporary respite.
But daybreak, headache, heartbreak
binds me in my plight.
The cycle never alters,
the chaser chastened yet.
Debase, escape for brief respite
return the terrors of the night.
I sometimes think I must be mad,
this thoughtless jingle jangle.
The noises running in my head,
meaningless mental mangle.
Perhaps in death I’ll find repose,
the stillness that I crave.
Perhaps the only peace I’ll find
is in some dim dark grave.
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Would you like to have a collection of 50 of Ollie's best loved poems (many not on this site yet)? Click here to see Reflections on Life.
