“My problems are meaningless, but that doesn’t make them go away” Neil Young

You’ve woken up wanting to go back to bed

Wanting to be free from that cyanide in your head

Weighing down your soul, your eyes

Your spirit will never rise

You’ve bags of rocks tied around your neck

Choking you into the black

Sometimes you wonder whether you should fight

Or would it be easier to say good night?

You sail off into the storm. To be lost. Never found

Stealing you without a sound

You are the sad clown

Heavy is the head that wears the crown

So you turn that frown upside down

As somebody else always has it worse

And your problems don’t matter

You’re not the first and you won’t be the last

Your feelings will never pass

Keep a smile branded on your face

and you keep pace

With everybody living their best life

And you’re trying to survive

In a world of clouds, no silver lining

Rainbows, rays of sunshine, only a pining

To begin again

But when?

What about now?

Because it’s not your problem

But it is your responsibility

Show some accountability

As only you have the ability to make things better

Easier said than done? Sure.

As it’s not how many times you hit the floor,

But how many times you stand back up again

You didn’t ask for this

But it’s the hand you’ve been dealt

And you need to play it as best you can

And your liberation can only

be your creation

It won’t be easy

But you can start with one step, two then three

You know you must fight

Not roll over and say goodnight

Accept your every flaw

Which doesn’t mean showing it the door

But embracing your mistakes

Knowing it’s okay if your poems don’t rhyme or lack rhythm

If they don’t win slams

or get those finger snaps at open mic nights

You take

the good with the bad,

The happy with the sad

And you let every single win land.

You celebrate every success.

Got out of bed? Tick.

Showered? Tick.

Had breakfast?

Brushed your teeth?

Went to work?

Tick. Tick. Tick.

It’s okay to be angry or sad or hurt

to have emotions

And go through the motions

As everything is temporary

Even the negativity

And that will pass too

Acceptance brings peace

Letting go brings calmness

Whatever you resist

Persists

What is most personal is most universal

As people we’re all the same

With the same fears, loves and desires,

Stoking the fires that are keeping us scared

From doing the things we’ve never dared

Because we are the prisoner and the prison guard

But only we can realise our own liberation

Only we can set ourselves free

Will we take the first step?

Author’s note

A poem I wrote to the theme of liberation. I interpreted as a liberation of bad mental health or otherwise the things that keep everybody stuck. At least that’s how the poem started. It ends as a self-help seminar.