If you are like me, your moods seem to change many times throughout the day. Sometimes it is helpful to make the time to confront what you are feeling and take a gentle, introspective look at why you are having these thoughts or emotional reactions.
A great way to do this is to read poetry. Poems have this beautiful power of connection—to make us feel less alone—no matter what we might be feeling.
Here are a few examples of poems that might express or help unpack your mood today. Make sure to check out Part 1 of this list here.
IF YOU ARE FEELING DISCONTENTED
The difference between an ordinary life and an extraordinary life is only a matter of perspective. Pull the blinds. Look around you. It is a weird, wonderful world and you do not require a ten digit savings account to immerse yourself in it. Travel down long winding roads without a destination in mind, climb the nearest mountain and scream your heart out into the void, kiss strangers, make love, skinny dip in a lake, get lost and lose yourself (these are two separate things), explore the wilderness (particularly the one within), think less of destiny and more of the moment right here. Because in the end, as you reflect back on your life in that hospital bed, fame won’t matter, nor will the extent of your wealth. You are only the sum of the stories you can tell.
IF YOU ARE FEELING GRIEF
Music I heard with you was more than music,
And bread I broke with you was more than bread;
Now that I am without you, all is desolate;
All that was once so beautiful is dead….
For it was in my heart you moved among them,
And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes;
And in my heart they will remember always, —
They knew you once, O beautiful and wise.
IF YOU ARE FEELING RESTLESS
do not fast forward
into something
you’re not ready for
or allow yourself
to shrink back
into what’s comfortable
growth lives in
the uneasiness
the in-between
the unfinished sentence
you are a
season of becoming
IF YOU ARE FEELING SELF-DESTRUCTIVE
Your body is not a temple.
Your body is the house you grew up in.
How dare you try to burn it to the ground.
You are bigger than this.
You are bigger
than this.
IF YOU ARE FEELING REJECTED IN YOUR LOVE LIFE
You deserve more of their attention than their phone does.
You deserve quality time, not just time.
You deserve effort, not just routines.
You deserve to be treated as if you are a priority, not the last thing on their checklist.
You are special and you deserve to be the only option.
If that is too much to ask, you are asking it from the wrong person.
If begging ever becomes your last approach to receive those things which ought to be freely given, it’s safe to say, you are out of your dang mind.
Begging to be loved is suicide.
It’s like going sky diving from the Eiffel Tower naked of proper equipment, and expecting gravity to overturn the outcome.
IF YOU ARE FEELING STRONG
You read these things
And you ask the world,
Why doesn’t it happen
To someone like you?
Deep in your heart,
You knew the answer:
It’s because you don’t let it.
