The result of a dare

Friends and innocent bystanders, what you are about to read is both the result of a dare and an exercise in telling my own vicious inner critic to shove the hell off.

My friend Jamie and I were IM'ing and she was sharing that she hasn't been writing much lately because life frankly has dumped a steaming pile of crap on her recently and she doesn't have the same creative impulses that she normally does. So I was encouraging her to write something different, like poetry, to see if that might make a difference. Her response was, and I quote:

haha! i write the worst poetry in the world, the worst.

So I challenged her: half an hour, one poem each, we both post the results on our own blogs, regardless how pathetic they are. So here's mine:

There’s a crease in your forehead
There used to be laugh lines
There’s a hesitance in your expression
That used to be confidence
Life’s dealt you some nasty ones
And goodness you’re reeling

Where did “goodness” come from anyway,
When it used to be bold, angry words,
Conversationally tossed?

Nothing is stable, everything is wrong
Your foundation eroded from under you
While you shook your head in disbelief.

And that’s still part of the problem,
That you can’t believe it, can’t accept it
Ifonlyeverythingcouldgobackthewayitusedtobe.

I have no platitudes, no answers
Just faith in you.

Yes, this poem sucks donkey balls, it's so bad, but when I tried to dip my ladle into the river of the cosmic unconscious, this is what came up. So who am I to question the cosmic unconscious? :) It's not like I'll be sending it to a publisher anyway. :)

Sometimes we are just too hard on ourselves.

So, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write your own poem in 30 minutes or less, no matter how lame or insipid, and either post it in the comments here or on your own blog with a link to it in the comments.

Truly, your effort can't possibly be worse than mine, can it? And it feels great to tell the inner critic to feck off!!!! :)

Update: Jamie's poem can be found here. It is really far better than mine.