Depression

Have you ever been depressed? I mean, so overwhelmed with bleakness that life seems to be a punishment?

I've been there. And... I think that all the verse I've ever written, other than those silly haikus (haiku? what's the plural of haiku?) and the Star Wars limericks, has been when I was so deeply depressed that the only way I could think of to express myself was through the structure that verse demands.

One time, I literally couldn't talk. I felt as though if I opened my mouth, I'd scream so hard that I'd rupture something. The poetry gave me a structure that I could focus on, and let me drain the despair out gradually.

I've been trying to decide whether or not to post any of that here. One of them... well, I posted it to an e-mail list once, and got an e-mail in return asking if I needed to talk to a suicide hotline, or something like that.

But hey, I don't even know if anyone's reading this blog anyway.