A Different Path In The Same Woods by Moth Gorman

it was a different year and i woke up in the same woods i was in before

it was the quietest calm

like i had cried for hours

there is a weight that comes with being rooted in reality

and although everything looks so familiar i am so far from who i was

looking at the life i live with the same lens but no longer a fragmented frame rate

i never considered when i lived in the clouds

that even if i shut off my conscious and i flew far away without a tether

is my body was still somewhere cut and bleeding

and even when i wasnt with it it was still wounded

and i am so grateful for the ones who changed my bandages

and who kept me breathing

when i couldnā€™t find my way back and never thought i would

they brought me back and told me that i could

and i never sought to be here because i couldnt remember what it was like to see

and i thought if I was the same insect as before I would be trapped,

but I am finally free

****

This poem was written after I finally made the choice to reconnect to a more shared reality. I had been in a very individual reality for many months, and I made the choice to take my abilify again and wrote this poem in the woods I had walked in a different headspace so many times before.

****

Back toĀ Poetry Gallery

***

Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussionā€”broadly speakingā€”of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

***

Mad in America has made some changes to the commenting process. You no longer need to login or create an account on our site to comment. The only information needed is your name, email and comment text. Comments made with an account prior to this change will remain visible on the site.