Bipolar Disorder

(Dealing with mental health issues. Step 1. Talk about it. So I am)

Why am I so different?

Different from the rest?

Not your ‘normal’ poet?

(Born with brain bit messed)

Not the quite right balance

Of chemicals, you see

Forced on me by parent’s genes

Unknown to them, (and me)

Mania is my demon

Now kept in check with drugs

Family helped pull me out

From the hole I’d dug

I share the same condition

As Hemingway I’m told

Now kept in check with medications

Worth their weight in gold

Other sharers of my condition – Stephen Fry, Virginia Woolf, Vincent Van Gough, Spike Milligan, Robin Williams, Mariah Carey, Carrie Fisher, Mel Gibson, Brian Wilson, Kurt Cobain, Jimmi Hendrix, Vivien Leigh, Frank Sinatra, Sinead O’Connor, Winston Churchill

It’s left me with a two-edged sword

One’s razor sharp, can kill

The other’s razor sharp as well

It’s used to power my quill



I still can hear my demon

Rumbling ‘way with rage

Important that I take my drugs

To keep him locked in cage

So while I may be different

Even a little flawed

I’m really happy with my lot

Happy being ‘odd’

Don Matthews

May 2020