Great Dams Inside Someone built great dams in my mind, Thoughts built up and flooded back into All the tributaries and open spaces inside In the alcoholic ward the doctors and Nurses treated my disease Opened blockages, worked on my Years in the making, settled in Raise the dams slowly, loosened up Rivers of thought and poetry Art and words breaking like winter Ice on a frozen river, the spring thaw Is on and this is what I see Flowing out of me, knowing now Drugs cloud and silt and flood the mind And God set me free Knowing I’m Not the Only One We were playing with her little dog outside who took my Treats at a distance, nervous and fearful of me “It takes a long time for her to warm up and trust anyone” I laughed “I’m like that too” She whispered “Me too” And we looked at each other and smiled at this big truth shared, Over such a little thing Feeling a little less out of place in the world Sometimes so strange in my own skin trying to understand Why I am the way I am, often not meeting my own expectations About how I should be It helps knowing I’m not the only one Someone Cut a Hole in My Head Someone cut a hole in my head Took out my self-confidence My faith that I am worthy of love and self-respect I do not know how to get it back That big hole inside my head Perhaps this is my lot in life Just when I thought I was getting well II it comes and goes waxes and wanes tidal shift high and low and in between never steady and exact so who allowed the low tide to fool me again? the ocean is on its way back there are holes in my head Patience self-confidence is coming back