What does it mean to have bipolar disorder?
I was diagnosed with Bipolar I in college. After a clear manic episode while going to Temple University, a psychiatrist working on the campus prescribed me a mood stabilizer, along with the depression and anti-anxiety medications I was already taking.
Continue readingThe beast rises from modern hell.
dear jesus, help me create
a life that’s noble,
not absorbed in the
hurry of moderns –
not clamoring for my
next fix – let my fix
be you, the real you
desert-tan & calloused feet
from walking miles &
healing wretches like me
(Photo by Robert Thiemann on Unsplash)
Every so often, when things get really crazy, I like to think about Albert Camus. I turned to Camus’ writings a few years ago when my personal life fell off the rails. Yesterday, when Pro-Trump loyalists stormed the U.S. Capitol, I began to think of Camus again.
American politics right now are definitely absurd. People have been throwing around a lot of words to describe what’s going on: unprecedented, dark, nihilistic. Absurd is a good adjective, too.
Continue readingOur ancestors knew this was wrong.
i’ve always admired monasteries
monks cloistered from total noise
alone with demons
swimming in silence & striving
for divine union that no one
can name, but only point
to, the center of things,
the seat of the soul
(Photo by Josh Couch on Unsplash)
I asked my lover, “You’re nervous?”
what have i become?
this place feels familiar –
sights, sounds, sensations
like softness of blankets,
wrapped in cocoons in
woodland winters
lying on snow-ground
ice crusted on my nose –
Continue readingcome join this feast!
bring broken souls,
rejoice before a table of treats
we’ll set a fire above stones
dance around it
with wild guilt
watch us twist & turn –
shaman beat their chests
children laugh with glee
night falls, the fire rises
the feast at its last course
time for the children to hide
as we carry on
(Photo by Joshua Newton on Unsplash)
Note: This is a collaborative poem I did with Rachel. I wrote a couple lines and then she wrote a couple lines. We plan to do more and share them – it was fun!
the silence of winter is not
such a terrible thing –
graying snowbanks by roadsides
reduced to slush & a thick sky
cold & like the finest cotton,
naked trees, dying leaves
hanging for dear life
reminding me of sledding down
icy hills, red plastic breaking
leaving shards to be buried below
like black bears snuggled in
warm caves
(Photo by Fabrice Villard on Unsplash)
