Tuesday 12 January 2010

MY BITTER BLOOD


“If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don't embrace trouble; that's as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Our lives are a curious mixture of the external and internal, the things that we experience from without, and what we are within. We process and we balance, we mix and try to make of the mixture happiness, even in adversity. The measurements need be accurate for one drop too much or too little will make the mixture spoil and our world collapses around us. This is a poem I wrote as I recovered from my black mood of late…

My Bitter Blood


My blood is bitter, and it percolates though my flesh,
Making me twisted, rancorous, acrid;
My words astringent spilling from my dry mouth
Like falling, wilted autumn leaves.

My blood is acid, burning and eating my tissues,
Making of me an empty, burnt out husk;
My feelings ashes, my emotions charcoal
Like the forest devastated by a wild fire.

My blood is salty, and it hardens my body,
Drying me out, parching me, desiccating me;
My eyes unseeing, blinded, destroyed,
Like a withered mummy in a sarcophagus.

My blood is sour, and it makes my bones brittle,
Crushing, making them acerbic, dissolving them;
My resolve exhausted, my fortitude weakened,
Like a pearl melting in vinegar.

My heart only stays sweet,
Its dulcet beating unaffected
By bitter, acid, salty, sour blood.
Love still nourishes it, saves it from adversity,
And makes me live, still;
Even if my blood is poisoned from without…


Jacqui BB hosts Poetry Wednesday

5 comments:

  1. Such a sad poem. Where is that blue butterfly of hope? I wonder how long a heart can stay sweet when it is washed by bitter blood for too long.

    Let us both home for a return to brighter and more positive days.

    Wishing you well my poetic friend.

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  2. I hope that you are feeling better than the poem suggest you are Nic.
    It is a very sad poem.

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  3. I am glad to read that you wrote this poem as you 'recovered' from a black mood. It was a black mood indeed and I hope you are now fully restored to normality and that there is no longer a bitter taste of blood.

    This is my first visit here this year - still trying to catch myself. So I would like to wish you and those close to you a wonderfully bright 2010. No black moods to have to deal with.

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  4. This poem strikes a chord within me, Nicholas. I feel I know precisely the kind of feelings you were experiencing as I have experienced similar ones. The only thing I can say is that the sweetness of your heart will surely sweeten your blood too!

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  5. could be a poem about hiv and aids too

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