Thoughts about the monsoon

As the monsoon gears up for it's last assault, I'm tempted to post poetry I wrote around the turn of the century (OK... saying that was fun!!! and yes.. that statement is a reason to post ancient scribblings). Wrote these two because I was given a crazy essay assignment - 'my favorite season' - when in college. I kid you not. I had to do something to make it interesting for self ...

The positive spin (the sitting at home / romantic perspective): Monsoon's Magic

The scent of fresh herbs
Wafting in the breeze,
The smell of wet earth
Rising to the trees.

The trees overhead
With bough and leaves entwined,
Form a pretty lattice;
Vague, yet defined.

A soft rain falls,
A little sun shows;
Forming in the skies
Translucent rainbows.

A cool breeze blowing
Through the wood and meadows,
Carries birdsong on it's wing
As monsoon's magic unfolds.


... and the negative spin (trudging in the rain / stuck in traffic perspective): Dripping Disgrace

Water dripping all over the place,
Leaves one looking a wet disgrace!
Mosses and weeds and slippery dung cakes,
In puddles turn roads into yucky lakes!

Traffic's all stopped 'cos the roads are flooded;
By Murphy, now the trains are delayed!
The lines of telecom and electricity go down;
One's got to bear it for the rains are in town!

self Blame

Some of the thoughts that lead to and maintain Depression. Possibly the most important symptoms of something being really, really wrong. Textbooks tell you that working through depression is a somewhat cognitive task. But experience tells me that the most important task is understanding just how absurd these thoughts are... and remembering the reasons why they are just so absurd. 

They claim I am a year (and counting) out of the black pit; but I still struggle to get these sorted out on occasion. That's how deeply they can be rooted; and how natural they can feel.

“I could die,
For having failed.
My ship sank -
Just when it should have sailed.
The only thing I could do worse,
Is admit to having bailed.

I hate myself
For being so weak;
I couldn't be worse
If I was a freak!
I deserve not mercy,
Nor acceptance, nor love,
Nor the help
I am about to seek.”

.... My biggest task
Is to change this thought;
And kill that stupid guilt
With which I am fraught.

I have to learn
To love what I am;
Than to fret over
What I am not!