We All Carry Ghosts

✩ Sometimes ✩

✩ Sometimes ✩

Sometimes I don't have words.

Sometimes I only have feelings.

Sometimes words don't make any sense.

Sometimes words only make things worse.

Sometimes words are not capable of sounding poetic and majestic.

Sometimes words don't do feelings justice.

Sometimes all I have are feelings.

Sometimes my feelings don't understand the English language.

Sometimes English alone cannot transcribe my feelings to anything tangible.

Sometimes all I have are the messy, uncomfortable, gray, angry feelings.

Sometimes all I have to offer are words full of inadequacy.

Sometimes all I have are words that fail to convey the truth.

Sometimes all I have are words that escape because I don't know how else to try and tell you what I feel.

Sometimes poetry fails me.

Sometimes poetry doesn't help.

Sometimes poetry only makes things worse because it forces me to admit that the feelings were real.

Sometimes poetry only makes me angry, depressed, fake, or maybe like I could cry.

Sometimes poetry isn't pretty,

But that doesn't make it ugly.

Just because poetry isn't pleasing to the eye

Doesn't mean it isn't soothing for the soul.

Sometimes the only reason I continue to write is to tell someone else that they aren't alone:

Alone in the pain,

Alone in the sadness,

Alone in the grief,

Alone in the agony,

Alone in the waiting,

Alone in the fire,

Alone in the tears,

Alone in the valley.

Because God only knows I needed someone to tell me.

✩ Author's Note ✩

If I'm being honest, this is probably my least favorite poem in the entire collection. It feels too repetitive, too boring, too basic, too inadequate. But . . . that's exactly why I needed to publish it. That inadequacy is the entire point of the poem—it's literally what the entire piece is trying to emphasize and pinpoint and ultimately accept. So, while I don't think it's my best writing, I truly hope that you like it and that maybe, somehow, it resonates.

I hope that this poem touches you through all of it's basic, repetitive, inadequate lines that are trying so hard to express feelings that words can never capture.