the lighthouse

[there's-a-war-in-my-mind]

Interminable but
Submerged, swept away in the flood
Beaten and borne by the wind
Tossed amongst the rocks to those watching above,
For their entertainment
Unable to differentiate between pain and love
You make me no promise to uncover
A hidden meaning in the tide
Or to discover
Why the moon insists on pulling me back
And persists to pursue the waters black,
The bottomless pools, the wreckage-strewn tributaries.
Floating carcasses of excess emotion
Grin at me, mockingly.
You are ,however, a beacon.
You illuminate my passage and
Restore an order, miniscule in nature,
But tangible nevertheless;
The only substantial spark of hope that has been ignited within me
since my path went so awry.
You are infallible, a rock to cling to
In this storm
Steadfast and beautiful,
You calmly reject the tempest that surges from my mouth
You know it is not my brain speaking, merely my larynx.
And the pills.
The pills you warned me against in your firm, comforting tone,
Inspiring in me a quiet confidence
With your unshakeable faith
In mankind
That, shortly after my birth,
I seemingly left behind.
You shine on my struggle,
A gasp, a grasp.
I cannot articulate
The extent of my gratitude.
I doubt you will ever know.
You offer a bridge
To something better
Although there is no periphery to this sea
That nearly drowned me.
I found myself falling
I have not stopped falling
Since I met that man.
You will not always be there to cushion the blow
But your omnipresent light initiated my rescue
And that is enough.

[there's-a-war-in-my-mind]

oh really?? thankyou!

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apologies for the lack of punctuation at the start

[Malu]

I clicked on this at first because lighthouses are cool to me and they are an interesting topic. I also originally thought I might see some cliches just because of the subject mater, but I found very nice flowing descriptions that painted a vey nice image. Thanks for the good read!

[Jim Steele]

I won't lie, it was your username that attracted me to this thread originally, but I really like this poem. Grew up in a wet, seaside climate and now live hundreds of miles inland, so oceanic imagery holds a special set of emotions for me to begin with. The idea of a port in a storm is a familiar one, but you made it your own here. I liked how the first half of the poem was extremely turbulent and dominated by the storm (I especially liked the part about "those watching above" being unable to differentiate between pain and love), but the second half seemed to slow down and focus more on the topic the storm was a metaphor for - almost like the "lighthouse" was having the desired, stabilizing effect on the narrator. This transition drove home the point about the "lighthouse" being the narrator's savior.