Don’t Worry

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Beware!

If your barometer’s set to stormy
And the outlook isn’t fair
Be mindful of the damage that’s
Occurring deep in there
As biochemicals do battle
With your heart and with your head
And take corrective action
Lest at worst you end up dead

For the toxic mix of irritants
Of stress, anxiety
The pressures of our daily lives
The mayhem that we see
Are biological poisons
That attack us on the go
So be mindful of these assassins
And relax and find your flow

 

 

 

Angst

So much on a mind
Bearing the weight of the world
In tangled nests of neurosis
Fettering flow
Checking composure
Traumatising tranquility
In a whirlwind of angst
That spirals out of control

And yet too, there in mind
In the inner sanctum of psyche
Rooted in silence and quietude
A nugget of calm
In the heart of soul
Petitions peace
Willing the chance to be heard
Amidst cognition’s chaos

For such is the conflict
An unseen battle raging
In the theatre of existence
Constant consternation
Emotional exertion
Pressure, stress and tension
In a life that is out of sync
With the essence of being

  

Lost

There is a fog, a miasma of mind
Consuming the soul
Burdening the heart
With relentless might
That hails from confusion
A place; a world, an existence
That engulfs any who cross the threshold
A fog obscuring even obscurity
In plumes of despair,
In a nebula of persecution
Relentlessly hijacking truth
And holding hostage hope
In a soup of neural corruption
Where the light is stolen
And the swirls of night sweep
Cell by cell
Synapse by synapse
Into the abyss
Trapped, nay lost, in a living hell
From whence there seems no escape

Stress!

His mind is froze
He cannot think
I think he might
Be on the brink
Or on the verge
He does not know
For this is stress
And it won’t go!

Loss

Loss – whatever form it takes
Runs with cyclic momentum
Through a passage of time
From the crushing initial shock
Reality’s illusion
Through corridors of anger
Emotion’s vent
To the perplexing roller coaster
Surging up; collapsing down
Until acceptance swims
In the calm waters of serenity
With a readiness to live on
As broken hearts are patched
Scaffolded and built to pave
The new tomorrow
Which today we call hope

English: Light at the end of the tunnel Eastern end of Newchurch No2 Tunnel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Worry Not

If you feel a little worried
Anxious or plain upset
Remember that there are better things
To come your way just yet
And take the time to dream a bit
Consider where you’ll be
In times ahead without this stress
And pure anxiety

Take a walk or do some exercise
To pacify your mind
Breathing in deep to saturate
Yourself with air; unwind
And sleep a little more as well
Eat healthy snacks and meals
Spend time with friends who make you laugh
Do things that chill the deal

But over all these matters just
Be true to you each mile
Inspire yourself and turn your face
From worried to a smile
And step ahead with faith and trust
That you can be happy
Allowing good to flood right in
And wipe out your worry

Lost

Lost and over burdened
Unsure of what to do
Confused, perplexed, confounded
Mind melting in a stew
Battered in the mayhem
Frought with deep despair
Bewildered, muddled, frightened
Does anybody care?

Paranoid

Have you heard the rumour
She knows you think it’s true
She’s saying things behind your back
And talking about you

She’s gathering information
She’s tracking every move
She wants to see you pack your bags
Yourself she might remove

She’s making up big stories
She’s telling lots of lies
She’s getting folk to side with them
Recruiting many spies

Least that is what you’re thinking
Those thoughts within your head
Those nagging doubts that grow so big
Coercing what you dread

And so you buy into this set
Delusion in your mind
Suspicion growing really fast
Fear turning thoughts so blind

Yet with very little substance
This way you can’t avoid
Your feelings are now firm beliefs
And now you’re paranoid

‘Paranoia’, oil on canvas painting by Neo Rauch, 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Transitions

They sat there in assembly
All lined up neat in rows
Pressed in new blazers; some quite big
That hung down near their toes
With shirt sleeves rather massively
Extending past their arms
And trousers rolled up in great folds
Heart’s pacing; feint alarms

The new kids all awaiting for
The head to come and speak
The first day at their brand new school
Yet weather rather bleak
For in the hall an eeriness
A grey mist hung in air
No word; no sound; no squeak nor squeal
Just something strange right there

Then he appeared; through curtain’s veil
To take up centre stage
In robes of academia
A man of some great age
And started to address them
In tongues they did not hear
Peculiar! Yet in all truth
Most were just bored to tears

Some even dared to drift off in
A stupor; some did snore
And Jo Bloggs twice fell off his chair
And landed on the floor
But even he did not expect;
Pre-empt what then he heard
A flash; a bang; a mighty crash
And then a throng of words

Like voices in a football crowd
All flying overhead
A mass of noise; commotion and
A sense of creepy dread
From where they came; he did not know
But like mammalian
The headmaster revealed himself
A Martian Alien

“Right Now!” he said
“You listen up” he spelt in words so clear
“You lads are at my school from now”
“The start of the school year”
And you will do as I will bid
In line with Martian Law
Enlist; behave and follow me
Or feel my wrath and more”

He bellowed on and on and on
Jo Bloggs, now wide awake
Felt damp to say the very least
And in his boots did quake
What place was this?  Where had he come?
Why could he not escape
Yet rooted to the spot he just
Stood still to gawp and gape!

He couldn’t move; he couldn’t think
Entrenched by freaked out fear
So much for his Mum’s pet talk that
Said “you’ll be ok, my dear”
“Oh, no!” he sighed “What should I do?”
“Dash out or stay right put?”
But still be found he was stuck still
And couldn’t budge his foot!

He wriggled and he squirmed around
He wracked this brain and mind
Contorting body, arms and limbs
To twist and skew – unwind
But then the spotlight found him
It pinned him to the post
Illuminating everything
Those things he dreaded most

It showed the inner thoughts he had
The things he’d hidden from
The worries that he’d just not faced
Left pounding like a drum
The things he was concerned about
Anxieties and fears
But now in alien spotlight
He had other ideas

For how he wished he’d talked them out
Prepared well in advance
Thought all about the things he’d done
To give himself a chance
“Help! Help!” He screamed! “Help!” said a voice
A voice from deep within
And slowly all the noise did cease
Where silence calmed; not din!

Not din nor word, for hush had come
The light and glare was gone
And Jo Bloggs realised that this had been
A nightmare all along
And from that day, that little chap
Took heed of thoughts in head
Lest they might come and spook him out
When he was in his bed!

Postscript:  I wrote this thinking about how we deal with change and how anxieties can creep in when we don’t face them.  Fronting up to those fears, facing our mountains seems to me to be the best way to help them crumble.  This poem is written in the context of a young boy facing the transition to big school.  It’s a time when children have to face up to big change in their life – for some maybe the first big change they’ve had to do on their own.  Helping them talk about their fears, face up to their worries and prepare them for that transition helps them make the move a whole lot easier.  Isn’t that true for all of us?  You know what they say it’s all the preparation.  So I hope we will all have the courage to face our aliens before they face us.  Every best wish.