"drowning"

Here's the poem I entered into the World Poetry Movement contest that I promised to share! :)

"Drowning"
The sky emptied its tears on me today
Sometimes the heavy burden is too much to bear.
I'm drowning in that lake the rest of you call self-pity
Hopelessly drifting among my cries no one ever hears or answers.
Life is like some twisted movie
Too bad we aren't the ones writing the script.
We all know the inevitable end.
Terror and disgust rise in my throat
But I choke them back down and walk on.

Copyright 2012 by Jennifer Ricketts
Please do not use any part of my work unless permission is granted. Thank you.

I had to give up on my cell phone sending pictures to add to this post. :/ I searched the web but couldn't find any photos of this particular book. The cover is so cool...I really wanted to share it! Ah well.

Here's how this poem came about--at the time I was working at Goody's in the stockroom, a clothing store that was between my home and college. I was nineteen or twenty years old at the time and did a lot of thinking while working since I didn't have much interaction with customers. I was on my way up to collect the trash and empty hangers from the cash registers near closing time one night when the first couple of lines popped into my head. I gathered up the trash and hangers as fast as I could and ran to the back of the store, heading for the break room. I found scrap paper and wrote down the words before I lost them. The rest of the poem took shape that night when I went home.

I went over and over it, changing a couple things here and there, and working on making it into a piece of work I could be proud of. That's exactly what it became, and almost twelve to thirteen years later, I'm still very happy and satisfied with what I produced.

That was a period of time in my life when I was struggling with the next phase of my life--attending college, deciding what to do with my life, and becoming an independent adult. I was also struggling heavily with the weight from the loss of my mother five years before composing this poem. I literally felt as though I were drowning in grief and melancholy. This helped me explain how I was feeling to my family and friends in a way that resonated more than if I had just tried to simply explain my feelings. I had never been so inspired and ended up writing several more poems. Those need some work to shape them into pieces I can be proud of, too.

So there you have it! :) Any constructive criticism, comments, questions are welcome. Don't be afraid to tell me the truth! I need it! :D