Psycho-Babble Writing Thread 316460

Shown: posts 1 to 2 of 2. This is the beginning of the thread.

Charles Harper Webb~~~~~~~~

Posted by fayeroe on February 22, 2004, at 11:36:53

Feeling Sorry for Myself

I start with a groan, swelling to a moan,
rising to a keen, ascending
to a shriek that tapers off in a thin wail.
I hug myself and, whimpering,
rock back and forth on my heels.
No one has ever known such sadness.
No one can grasp how I feel.

I smash an egg over each eye.
I smear my face with coal and pepper.
I wear a paper bag soaked through
with spoiled watermelon and pork grease.
I shred my happy past - my books,
pictures, and poems, published or not.
Ill never fly fish again.

Ill never make love again.
Ill never sit outside and watch night
stretch its starry tent over the sky.
There will be no more metaphors.
I am more sorrowful than a sorrowing man.
Life has no more meaning to me
than a life without meaning.

My heart slows. My blood congeals
to brown, vein-clogging mush.
My stomach goes on strike; my colon
bars its door. People assume
Im terminal. They imagine what
would make them feel the way I look,
and project their paltry problems onto me.

As if they could fathom my misery
by waterwinging over its abyss!
My pain is too heavy to lift,
too vast to measure, too ineffable to name,
and incalculably too precious to share.
I dig my grave in a landfill, and topple in.
I rub dirt and dog droppings in my hair.

Ive sunk so low its funny; so I start to giggle.
Then to chortle. Then to roar. Mothers
clutch their bleating kids, and rush away.
Gangbangers dash to the far side of the street.
I crawl out of my grave, strip, and shower
with a gunk-filled water hose.
I shake and shiver, grinning, in the filty air.

- Charles Harper Webb

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life.
--Anne Lamott

oh fayeroe what you do to me!

Posted by Jai Narayan on February 22, 2004, at 21:50:43

In reply to Charles Harper Webb~~~~~~~~, posted by fayeroe on February 22, 2004, at 11:36:53

Oh my gosh! You are the best to bring these amazing artists to my brain. I feel such a hunger for this poetry.....thank you.

This is the end of the thread.

Show another thread

Psycho-Babble Writing | Extras | FAQ

Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD, bob@dr-bob.org

Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.