art – The Fragrance Writer

Are You on this Ride Too? | Poetry Remix No. 69

Riding on this Rollercoaster. are you on this ride too — Photo by Haley Lawrence on Unsplash

Are you on this ride too?
Seems like the wait is taking a long time.
It’s been a while but I’m not closer.
I’m starting to wonder if I’ll be fine. . .

Are you on this ride as well?
After a while I’ve learned all its turns.
There’s no shake or jolt that will surprise me.
But after every ride, the beast still yearns.

Anxiety rises until it breaks,
Pumping faster and faster through my heart.
Just to dive through tunnels of depression.
And when it ends, we’ll be back at the start.

Are you going to ride again?
Just another pill to drop down the mouth.
Hope for the best before leaving your house.

I wrote this poem in response to my thyroid medicine. Thyroiditis can lead to all sorts of emotional disturbances, including anxiety, depression or even a while ride between both. Getting put on medicine can alter your hormones and emotions as well – just making for a harder ride – while just hoping the right dosage will be found and you can finally have peace.

I hope you’re not on this ride, too.

Sometimes I Find a Blank | Short Poem No. 125

Sometimes I find a _______.

Sometimes
I shut my eyes.
I ask myself how I feel.
I am my best therapist.
Am I my best therapist?

Sometimes
I ask myself
What am I hiding
(hiding or hiding from?)
in the basement of my mind.
My conscience calls
But alas, no answer.

Sometimes
I’m disheartened
To search myself
And discover nothing.
I come home
empty handed.

Sometimes
I find a monster
like that from a
Stephen King novel
and I regret
I ever searched
in the first place.

What do you find
When you search
Sometimes?

Or do you move
from place to place
with the same, old box
Always sealed?

This is My Story

I guess this part is where I let you know a little bit of my story…

“Scribbled to Paper”

By the time I started “The Fragrance Writer” in 2020, I had already been blogging about poetry for a few years (since 2017). I was inspired by my mother, who decided that, in her retirement, she would try something new – write and publish a book! I thought, if she was brave enough to try that, I should try something, too!

I knew I also had a skill of writing that was just lying dormant inside of me. It was time to bring it out, blow off the dust and start to develop it – to not waste it. So I started a poetry blog. My first one was called “Scribbled to Paper.” A year later, I started a new one, “The Poetry About Us,” which was a more refined version as I started learning the ropes a little bit. That blog eventually changed to “Writing with Strangers,” where I started focusing on the community aspect on blogging and collaborating with other writers.

Another Passion

But I had another passion in my life: Fragrances. This began as a mere nerdy past-time. I was trying to find, one day, online advice of which fragrances were better than another (I know, a pretty subjective idea). I soon discovered there was a whole online community where people rate fragrances, tell the stories about them and list all the notes and details of each. As an accountant, I fell in love with the idea of creating systems of classifications and organizations and ratings for different scents. Even more than that, I loved trying them and experiencing, not just how each one made me smell, but also how each one made me feel.

I now became a “frag-head. . .” Someone addicted to fragrances. I began building my fragrance collection. I started following all of the popular reviewers on YouTube. And I, too, became one of those guys that went on the online communities and starts leaving reviews for every fragrance he smelled.

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