Anhedonia

Flat,
Like a joyless ode.
No ups or downs,
No peaks and valleys,
Just the outstretched blank expanse of human emptiness
Onto which life is projected.

Flat,
Like a surfboard,
But not the surf.
I feel no crest, no crash against the shore.
I am the sleeping hermit crab,
Content to exist for a while then scurry off to find a new home

Flat,
Like your deadpan stare,
Empty eyes and emptier conscience.
Was it on you I spent the last of my feelings?
Somehow I doubt it,
But where else could they have gone?

12 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Not that you feel that way ... but the poem. :) I hope you get a little bump of "happy" soon.

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  2. Nice write Derek. Lots to contemplate in this one.
    Thank you for dropping by my blog today

    Much💚love

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  3. Raw and powerful. Words carry weight😉

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  4. I always love the sea in a poem, and am intrigued by your closing stanza.

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  5. 'Flat.....Was it on you I spent the last of my feelings?'

    Holy cow that was an amazing line that really hit hard with your gray images....I agree...powerful!

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  6. "Depression," I thought, and then looked up "anhedonia" to find out it is indeed a symptom thereof. That you can describe it so well, in such excellent verse, gives me hope that you aren't still entirely caught up in it. Yes, as others also note, the closing verse is particularly powerful – because, for a minute there, feeling (bitterness) gets in.

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  7. 'Was it on you I spent the last of my feelings?'.... sigh.. this line says it all! The pain, the anguish, the confusion and on some point regret. Powerful write.

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  8. Flat... what an amazing expose... indeed not the surf.. such melancholy.

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  9. Favorite line: Was it on you I spent the last of my feelings?
    Powerful.

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