Poet Tree

This piece was created with thought towards the numerous great artists throughout history that have struggled and fought against internal demons. Various ones that come to mind for me personally are Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), Layne Staley (Alice in Chains), Whitney Houston, Heath Ledger, Edgar Allen Poe, Eminem and others that I can't remember right now. They obviously aren't the only ones that have gone through hard times and they haven't all committed suicide. But this poem is a dedication to them as well as reflection of my own mind during dark times.

Oh em gee

There’s Poet Tree

Where all the artists hang

Like you and me

Poets and musicians swaying

No longer do they write or sing

They wove their own rope

Out of sensitive heart strings

Substance abuse, shotgun skull

Sad and lonely and fearful

Inability to cope

Against the riptide’s deadly pull

Now I can see

Here’s Poet Tree

With a new coil fashioned

Especially for me

We’re never twenty-eight

Consumed by things that frustrate

Unable to see past the present

Skeletons and blind hate

Tragedy and trouble

Disappointment, a popped bubble

In tune to issues of life

Buried beneath rubble

I broke branches with my knees

Ascending the trunk of Poet Tree

Hands that once wrote words

Tightened the rope around me

We’re forever twenty-seven

Free spirits locked out of Heaven

Until that day peace prevails

Minds and gates finally open

I used to be sixteen

Somewhere I lost me

Inside a vat of restlessness

And an apathy to be

So crouching in the leaves

I leapt from Poet Tree

Hope for tomorrow sprung

Into the air alongside me