Free 24hr Assistance: 813.882.3003
Search
Close this search box.
Search
Close this search box.
Celebrating National Poetry Month - Poem by Jim Dwyer

Celebrating National Poetry Month – Poem by Jim Dwyer

A brief heroically wasted life was not after all what i was after

a musty anonymous church basement room

a close to opaque cloud of silver-blue cigarette smoke

a cup of hi-test styrofoam coffee

a merciless orange plastic chair

the usual pre-meeting buzz & chatter

the banter the world class palaver

this strange fellowship of stranger characters

(where my strangeness isn’t even all that strange)

these sometimes lucid now & again blind sort of brilliant

stumbling ecstatic lucky ludicrous perfect imperfections

these are the average unbelievable people

who plain & simple saved

my average behind…

they didn’t lecture or moralize

demand allegiance obedience or submission

mostly they made suggestions sought wisdom & told stories–:

stories like a boxer’s disaster nose his cauliflower ears

stories like a clown’s alarming slapstick dance on the highwire

stories about everything & nothing

& how much they both matter

stories about the runaways who make it home

& the ones who never do

stories that broke my heart like a birthday pinata

stories that convinced me that maybe just maybe

i wasn’t as special & all alone as i thought

& that possibly perhaps this might be a good time

for me to shut up & do some listening

stories that told a story about addiction

& how it corrupts you body mind & soul

a chronic progressive fatal addiction

although you don’t have to die from it they said

unless you absolutely insist on it…

ask for some help & follow this path they told me

& even though right now you think it’s impossible

you can in fact learn how to live

inside your own skin without drinking or using drugs–:

you can face yourself face up to your past

work to make your amends

work at being less of a selfish jerk

& believe it or not you can find a life–:

a useful decent creative messy contradictory

bittersweet ordinary human life

& if you stick with it

if you practice your practice & stay reasonably real

you will sooner or later get your chance to pass it on

to give away what was given to you

& you can do it too

because you know what it’s like to be desperate

to be fresh out of excuses wisecracks & clever comebacks

to be standing at that doorway

angry ashamed afraid

& wondering how the hell did i wind up here?…

the amazing transformational grace of human solidarity

that was the magic that was the gift

that was what they gave me

instead of what i deserved…

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Telegram

Call To Speak with our Admissions Department

Toll Free: 813.882.3003

Contact Us

If you’d like more information about our programs please select from the list below and we’ll contact you.

List

Please provide any necessary details about your reason for contacting us.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Turning Points of View