The Devil Within (a poem I wrote in high school)

So, today I was cleaning my room extensively. I ended up throwing 3 full garbage bags of crap away, including all my work from college. It was depressing because I studied hard and did well and then decided I didn't want to be in that profession. Oh well, that's my journey. Anyway, I found a stack of paper from high school, and in that stack was a few things I had written in my Grade 12 English class and Creative Writing class. So, for the next couple blogs I will share them with you.

This poem is titled “Devil Within” and I'm sure after reading it you will think I was/still am fucked up but I can assure you I am happy and healthy, I just have a poet soul lol. Poetry is about interpreting the words in a way that affects you. My poem can have many interpretations but what I was aiming for when I wrote this was the struggle we all have with ourselves to forget what may have happened in the past and not be afraid to change your future in order to follow your dreams.

The Devil Within

You're not at all loud,

Yet you are never inaudible.

It's overwhelmingly awkward being alone with you.

Therefore, I am always in a state of awkwardness.

You force me to dwell upon my broken past.

You depict images of my desolate future.

You remind me of the crestfallen present.

I want myself to want better things,

but you tell me these things are unattainable.

I want to change,

I know what I have to do,

but you tell me it's impossible.

I say I need to try, I need to see!

You say it's safer not to.

“What will others think of you?” you say to me.

There is no ignoring your emphatic tone.

I try to find sweet solitude in my dreams,

but I ill-fatedly find you there haunting me.

My dreams are private images locked in an imaginary box,

but you always manage to pry it open and interfere.

I've had enough of you!

Stop playing these diabolic games with me!

Unlock these restricting chains you've set upon me!

Wait...you are me.

We're one in the same.

It's me...against myself.

It's up to me to overpower the devil within.

Dear me, please give me the strength,

to repair the damage that “I” has done to “Me.”