An Unheard Scream is Still a Scream | Teen Ink

An Unheard Scream is Still a Scream

June 26, 2011
By TimeCouldStopMe BRONZE, Salmon, Idaho
TimeCouldStopMe BRONZE, Salmon, Idaho
4 articles 1 photo 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
"All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost."

"I know that life is busy and hard, and that there’s a crushing pressure to just settle down and get a real job and khaki pants and a haircut. But don’t. Please don’t. Please keep believing that life can be better, brighter, broader, because of the art that you make. Please keep demonstrating the courage that it takes to swim upstream in a world that prefers putting away for retirement to putting pen to paper, that chooses practicality over poetry, that values you more for going to the gym than going to the deepest places in your soul. Please keep making art for people like me, people who need the magic and imagination and honesty of great art to make the day-to-day world a little more bearable. And if, for whatever reason, you’ve stopped– stopped believing in your voice, stopped fighting to find the time–start today. - Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."
-Nietzsche

"You were born crying, so die smiling."


I don't mean to make you feel like you're just filling my emptiness.
Like you're only here for my benefit.
Vast...
Is the emptiness really that big?

If you opened me up,
You'd find an ocean size nothingness.
What is left of me might stand in the middle,
Open armed.
But not even close to armed.

I could probably stand in the middle of a bustling sidewalk,
And scream.
Do you think anyone would hear me?
I have long passed climbing the impeccable mountain.
The trouble is getting down.

I do not mean to make it so obvious.
So blatantly positive that I need help, but not from you.
Because, if you tried to help me,
The guilt would come back in a sopping wet mess.
Because, you don't deserve to have to fix something you didn't break.

I refuse to admit that I cannot handle this.
Because, I've handled it before...
Haven't I?
Or was it you that handled it?
Could you please just come back and handle this?
Because I think it might be too much for me.

An unheard scream is still a scream.
A tree still falls even if no one watched it fall.
I could spend my whole life building myself back up,
Brick by brick.
But, you know me.
And I would just take myself down again.

The author's comments:
I often battle with myself when I want help, but I don't want to ask for it because I hate making people feel like I'm their responsibility. This poem is an emotional one for me, like most of my poetry, it isn't very cheery.
(=

Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.