An Ode to Depression

for better and worse, dedicated to Nirvana's Kurt Cobain,
who's been on the cover of "The Rolling Stone" most often

I admit there's plenty of times,
for shows of strength and well-being,
and that even forced optimism, can at times,
lead one toward the real thing

Plus self-important melancholy makes me vomit,
though in widely varying forms it's made
many a "rock" band quite a profit,
but that's a card that was on "grunge" fakely played...
with so many magazines suggesting any "millionaire star"
should be happy with just the way things are

But "Nirvana," "Pearl Jam," and "Alice In Chains"
weren't just singing about personal pains,
and were expressing Bohemian angst and rage
against the primal, bill-board deadness of our age

It's not as a super fan
of this "movement" I write today,
for (though they had a certain blunt elan)
they had little about the the big picture to say
though they had America's stage and world-fame...
!!!but don't say I said
they're somehow especially to blame!!!

Both personally and publicly
there's power in confessing one's sadness,
in letting the world know
that you're not from heart-ache free...
that you know more of struggle than of golden bliss
and perhaps this is why freely
you let your own lantern glow

For even in blossoming times,
there are some dark nights when...
(perhaps having caught a glimpse
of capitalism's stark sin
or simply of your own mortality)
that all living souls feel the call to mourn!!!

I say too many have made the machine
a geometric, error-less, emotion-less deity,
in whose worship too many good folk are thoughrily torn...

for there's a time to smile,
a time for unrelenting industry,
a time to be fierce,
a time to practice guile,
but also, !!also!! a time to shed tears

And, whatever act you need to put on,
at least with yourself aim for truth...
and admit those of your hopes that are gone,
and with sadness your sores gently soothe

In reality, there will be times,
when, if as I, you aim for goals high and praise-worthy
for you'll be hit seemingly from all sides
by petty elements of modernity...

and there's a time to hold your hands high in despair,
even for the tearing of hair:
to give one's self up to one's troubles,
to in one lethargic blues
your own and the world's cares to infuse;

For a while you might find it "profitable,"
to wear more-than-seeming suits of black,
and to be lethargic, confused and sorrowful
!!!for this is a way to find one's TRUE path back!!!