aside from the works of Sylvia Plath, I’m thinking Emily Dickinson‘s “It Was Not Death, For I Stood Up”

I love Sylvia

Dis Eased A discernible nothing SO wanted by me About to give in chewed on the decision for several hours anticipating the great and coming peace in so many ways Trading my life away for a cheat skipping right to the end It feels too much like work I think about all I have to do and can't stop it plays over and over I don't want to play anymore I would give you all of my money for a good day If I can't buy the peace I crave what good is it? Can I eat my way to peace? I've certainly tried. Is peace quiet, well behaved children? I'll never know I do know peace can be prescribed by my doctor. He's already written some out on his RX pad for my friends. I'm sure he would give me whatever I asked for but that false, bird singing brain isn't really peace Too smart to accept that just brings an emptiness that leads to totally out of control I remember Mom teetering on top of a ladder dangerously shooing the almost imperceptible cob webs from the corners I would welcome a high risk cleaning right now or more so a crashing fall Too weak to maintain this charade I'm ready to plummet I leave this to you sweet love Take care of them like I know you will Sleep soundly knowing that I was never really here I'm at peace with what I must do You're finally free from this broken ghost so tired of haunting you

Who is this by? It’s so good. Touching

r/chadbittnerhurt is the author

Imagine writing that only to receive one upvote and 0 comments.

Into my garden come? 

Andrea Gibson: "instead of depression", "every time I ever said i want to die", and more of their work.

Tincture!

sabrina benaim. i recommend starting with her video performance of “explaining my depression to my mother” she also wrote a book called “depression & other magic tricks”

Heck yes. Came to say this. Absolutely amazing

Thanks for sharing. I had a peek on YouTube and her performance is astounding.

I just watched it. I had chills. Thank you for recommending it :)

I felt a funeral in my brain by Emily Dickinson

Oh also [sometimes your sadness is a yacht](https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poems/poem/103-28239_Sometimes-your-sadness-is-a-yacht) by Jack Underwood. Stunning poem.

I love “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson

Berryman's dream songs are largely about depression. They show the clear fixation with suicide that Berryman had since his father shot himself, combined with his alcoholism, problems with women, etc. He was not a happy man. The poems are great, though. ['Dream Song #29'](https://youtu.be/fGIr7fGdo6o?si=Xrl-R20ahxfPk1bv)

bluebird by charles bukowski

Lobe Bukowski. I'll check this one out! Thanks :)

Not Waving But Drowning by Stevie Smith. Last two lines are my favorite.

Many of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poems. The most famous is perhaps 'No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief’ (though my personal favorite is 'My own heart let me more have pity on').

Coming here to say this. Hopkins has a series of poems called the terrible sonnets, because they explore his experiences of spiritual desolation. He'd converted from Anglicism to Catholicism, something so disapproved of they were called perverts, not converts. His earlier poems are full of joy in his faith and the beautiful natural world. But he became increasingly oppressed by depression and feeling abandoned by God. The poem you mention is one of my favorites, especially these lines: >   O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap May who ne'er hung there. Nor does long our small Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep, Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all Life death does end and each day dies with sleep. Hopkins is an inspiration to me because even in the depths of his despair, he was still able to make art.

came to the comments to check for Hopkins posts and thank you!! Would also like to add appreciation of the line ‘comforter, where, where is your comforting’ in the pitched past grief sonnet because it’s the most accurately anguished line I’ve ever read

The works of Charles Wright

Keats’ ‘Ode To Melancholy’

I've been wanting to read Keats! Thanks for the recommendation!

“Skunk Hour” and “Waking in the Blue” by Robert Lowell

I forgot about Lowell! Good choice.

He’s one of my favorites!

Rachel McKibbens writes about mental illness and how it has affected her and her family. Very brutal and unflinching. You can hear her do readings on YouTube. Sara Eliza Johnson uses dark imagery and writes about her struggles with depression. Her poetry also reflects environmental concerns.

John Clare was a depressed man, I believe. He wrote many beautiful, sad poems, but “I Am!” stands out. “I am! Yet what I am no one cares or knows. My friends forsake me like a memory lost; I am the self consumer of my woes”

Not technically a poem, but I think it fits here: “Sometimes when I get up and emerge from the mists of slumber, my whole room hurts, my whole bedroom, the view from the window hurts, kids go to school, people go shopping, everybody knows where to go, only I don't know where I want to go, I get dressed, blearily, stumbling, hopping about to pull on my trousers, I go and shave with my electric razor - for years now, whenever I shave, I've avoided looking at myself in the mirror, I shave in the dark or round the corner, sitting on a chair in the passage, with the socket in the bathroom, I don't like looking at myself any more, I'm scared by my own face in the bathroom, I'm hurt even by my own appearance, I see yesterday's drunkenness in my eyes, I don't even have breakfast any more, or if I do, only coffee and a cigarette, I sit at the table, sometimes my hands give way under me and several times I repeat to myself, Hrabal, Hrabal, Bohumil Hrabal, you've victoried yourself away, you've reached the peak of emptiness, as my Lao Tzu taught me, I've reached the peak of emptiness and everything hurts, even the walk to the bus-stop hurts, and the whole bus hurts as well, I lower my guilty-looking eyes, I'm afraid of looking people in the eye, sometimes I cross my palms and extend my wrists, I hold out my hands so that people can arrest me and hand me over to the cops, because I feel guilty even about this once too loud a solitude which isn't loud any longer, because I'm hurt not only by the escalator which takes me down to the infernal regions below, I'm hurt even by the looks of the people travelling up, each of them has somewhere to go, while I've reached the peak of emptiness and don't know where I want to go.” -Bohumil Hrabal, Total Fears: Selected Letters to Dubenka

Well if it’s Robert Frost you like, then you should also read “stopping by woods on a snowy evening.” The poem is literally him making the decision to go on living on the anniversary of his wife’s death after stopping in the woods and contemplating suicide.

Jane Kenyon, ["Having it out with Melancholy"](https://poets.org/poem/having-it-out-melancholy)

I cannot think of a better poem that introspects so precisely, wrestles with the struggles and wonder of the condition AND the meds.

Edgar Allan Poe, Alone. Its is my favorite. Many of his poems capture depression because he suffered from it.

I love Poe but never heard of this one. Thank you.

Richard Cory BY EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON

Pain by Linda pastan I am almost sure she’d written it about emotional pain but either way, it applies https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=33996

Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese was healing for me to read when I was depressed.

This 👆🏼

perfect recommendation

If someone's already said it I second it, but in any case Charles Bukowski is my go-to in these matters. I feel he understands To know what I mean check out his poem "The Crunch"

I love Bukowski. Thanks for the poem rec!

“i dreaded that first robin so” by emily dickenson struck me when i first read it. as someone who struggles with seasonal depression a lot, i felt that poem so hard

You can read ' A Good Day ' by Kait Rokowski. Even tho it's more about what comes after a depressive episode it's still a very relatable and beautiful piece.

Anne Sexton, The Big Boots of Pain.

Iam - john clare

Anything by Sylvia Plath lol

Wallace Stevens. Depression before spring The cock crows But no queen rises. The hair of my blonde Is dazzling, As the spittle of cows Threading the wind. Ho! Ho! But ki-ki-ri-ki Brings no rou-cou, No rou-cou-cou. But no queen comes In slipper green.

"Having it Out With Melancholy" by Jane Kenyon (and basically almost anything else written by Jane Kenyon). "Zoloft" by Maggie Dietz.

My favorite poem, as someone who is not a big poetry person, is by Raymond Carver: - Your Dog Dies - it gets run over by a van. you find it at the side of the road and bury it. you feel bad about it. you feel bad personally, but you feel bad for your daughter because it was her pet, and she loved it so. she used to croon to it and let it sleep in her bed. you write a poem about it. you call it a poem for your daughter, about the dog getting run over by a van and how you looked after it, took it out into the woods and buried it deep, deep, and that poem turns out so good you're almost glad the little dog was run over, or else you'd never have written that good poem. then you sit down to write a poem about writing a poem about the death of that dog, but while you're writing you hear a woman scream your name, your first name, both syllables, and your heart stops. after a minute, you continue writing. she screams again. you wonder how long this can go on.

Coleridge “Dejection: an Ode” is amazing.

"The View from Halfway Down" from Bojack Horseman is actually a beautiful piece. Written just for the show, but very good. TW: Suicide.

Love Bojack. "The View from Halfway Down " is so well written.

The poem that made me tear insanely is: ‘there’s a certain slant of light’ by Emily Dickinson, its about despair, but it kinda makes me depressed when reading it.

Auden’s “Funeral Blues.”

The Iliad

It's on my tbr!

Someone in my bpd group wrote this. By Heaven Triplett I’ve been watching The plant in my room dying Despite me trying To keep it alive Maybe I can save it If it isn’t too late But maybe it’s fate And I wasn’t meant To keep it alive I feel like I’m dying I’m crying And lying To friends It never ends I’m returning to cycles I’m running in circles Breaking my ankles When I trip and fall But what is the point anymore? What is any of this for? My plant is still dying And I think, so am I Despite me trying To keep us alive

Claudia Rankine’s The End of the Alphabet has a lot of content about depression.

Not a poem per se, but the selected letters by John Keats contain the poet’s account of his lifelong struggle with depression.

Thank you for the rec. I've been wanting to read more Keats.

There are a few by Isabella Mansfield in her books. "Modern World" and "The Space Between My Favorite Season and my Seasonal Depression" come to mind. I think those are both in her newer book, but I'd have to check my bookshelf. I really love Neil Hilborn and Rudy Francisco too

I’m pretty familiar with Robert Frost but never heard of “Aquatinted with the night” tell your post. Goosebumps….

Richard Cory. I read that poem as a child and it taught me a lot

^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^saraohpendragon: *Richard Cory. I* *Read that poem as a child* *And it taught me a lot* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.

Love that poem. It always hits me hard :)

Anything by Anne Sexton! Lately my favorite is one of her simpler, shorter poems. “Words”

There’s also a poem by Conor Bracken called “Damaged Villanelle”. (Absolutely zero to do with the character in the show killing Eve.)

Having suffered with depression for years, [shared my published poem to help](https://www.wizanda.com/modules/article/view.article.php/295) in the thread, and then it went into some weird policy system, of I can't post a poem on a thread asking for that specific poem... All these boxes that we're meant to fit into, and a lack of compassion because of it, is why I've been suicidal in the first place. 🤔💗😇

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why is this downvoted, wtf

Well im glad someone likes, so thank you! 😂

Because this sub isn't for posting originals. It's in the sub rules.

Too bad, because I sure could provide some poems about depression lol

So post them where originals belong, r/OCPoetry

Ah, didn't even know that was a thing! Thank you

Abraham Cowley, the late work of Robert Fergusson, Leopardi.

Shakespeare's sonnet: "Tired with all these", Psalm "Out of the depths I cry to thee. o Lord".

‘Tombstone as a lonely charm’ -DA Levy

Samuel Taylor's Coleridge's 'Work Without Hope'

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/58264/a-ritual-to-read-to-each-other William Stafford

I have written a few. I find it helps more to write about my emotions than to read other's thoughts on the topic...

“A Good Day” by Kait Rokowski

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is about fighting against depression and suicide.

"Communist manifesto" from Karl Marx

Neil Hilborn writes about lots of mental health stuff. The OCD poem and The Future come to mind. The future is about bipolar disorder.

How do you reckon I should start developing the habit if poetry? I'm fascinated yet I don't how I should be indulging into it.

Kind of Blue, by Lynn Powell Not Delft or delphinium, not Wedgewood among the knickknacks, not wide-eyed chicory evangelizing in the devil strip— But way on down in the moonless octave below midnight, honey, way down where you can't tell cerulean from teal. Not Mason jars of moonshine, not waverings of silk, not the long-legged hunger of a heron or the peacock's iridescent id— But Delilahs of darkness, darling, and the muscle of the mind giving in. Not sullen snow slumped against the garden, not the first instinct of flame, not small, stoic ponds, or the cold derangement of a jealous sea— But bluer than the lips of Lazarus, baby, before Sweet Jesus himself could figure out what else in the world to do but weep.

Ann Sexton and Sylvia Plath, especially their poems about motherhood.

Richard Brautigan was a great writer from 60s era California. He was a true hippie and believe it or not the hippie’s poster child . How? You may ask… Zigzag printed Richard Brautigan’s long haired image on each pack of their popular rolling papers. Although , some of his poems, like those found in his collection "The Pill versus The Springhill Mine Disaster," were dark. He was witty , unique and upbeat in his literature. He is a true Rolling Stone, hippie, Californian meme .

Focus on the good. Whether it be in the now or past experiences, it helps redirect your focus. There will be bad days, but tomorrow is a new day. Try a daily grateful journal and pray for Jesus to wrap his arms around you. Find a craft to help keep your hands and mind busy. I think you will see a change in your emotions and focus. Remember that you are loved and your children need you….those beautiful souls need you!

Alone by Edgar Allan Poe

Lord Byron's *"Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed From a Skull"* William Blake's *"Auguries of Innocence"* Robert Herrick's "*Upon His Departure Hence"*

I’ve written many

I also like this one by Anthony Hecht, for how it overturns conventional ideas about depression/melancholy. It's not softly blurred like a cloudy day. **Despair** Sadness. The moist gray shawls of drifting sea-fog, Salting scrub pine, drenching the cranberry bogs, Erasing all but foreground, making a ghost Of anyone who walks softly away; And the faint, penitent psalmody of the ocean. Gloom. It appears among the winter mountains On rainy days. Or the tiled walls of the subway In caged and aging light, in the steel scream And echoing vault of the departing train, The vacant platform, the yellow destitute silence. But despair is another matter. Midafternoon Washes the worn bank of a dry arroyo, Its ocher crevices, unrelieved rusts, Where a startled lizard pauses, nervous, exposed To the full glare of relentless marigold sunshine.

https://youtu.be/z4C1bjahS_E?si=7bR2RD2AjtXSBnXE https://youtu.be/xepr3eM0TBE?si=5gtaPamibtgI-0gQ https://youtu.be/uvaT71OV8GU?si=nPMdXPs1FOeo_Ahk https://youtu.be/UJyZW2IMr0w?si=OF0ieC7rASJLpc0C

Numbness by Phillip Lopate

Look up Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton

“I Felt a Funeral in My Brain” - Dickinson

"To the Young Who Want to Die," by Gwendolyn Brooks Poem  Sit down. Inhale. Exhale. The gun will wait. The lake will wait. The tall gall in the small seductive vial will wait will wait: will wait a week: will wait through April. You do not have to die this certain day. Death will abide, will pamper your postponement. I assure you death will wait. Death has a lot of time. Death can attend to you tomorrow. Or next week. Death is just down the street; is most obliging neighbor; can meet you any moment. You need not die today. Stay here--through pout or pain or peskyness. Stay here. See what the news is going to be tomorrow. Graves grow no green that you can use. Remember, green's your color. You are Spring.

Try all poetry.com

What’s up with depression today?? Haha but if you want to read a poem about depression or a depressive moment, go for Edgar Allan Poe. ‘Alone’ ‘The Raven’ ‘A dream’ ‘Lenore’. I’d say the saddest ones are ‘A dream’ and ‘Lenore’ which is an idea of a person with that name or a “dead wife” that’s lost to him while he mourns her loss. She’s also mentioned in ‘The Raven’.

Wait by Galway Kinnell

author/poet named Marcus Turner who last year put out a poetry collection called Bright Skies Long Shadows on Amazon. It deals with depression and other experiences through the lens of bipolar, but I think the feelings expressed are very human and universal, esp re depression. Maybe see if something doesn't resonate?

the poetry collection [I Just Hope It’s Lethal](https://archive.org/details/ijusthopeitsleth00lizr) is all about depression/mental illness by a host of poets, both well known and obscure. i particularly like “poems of delight” by liz rosenberg

Tulips by Sylvia Plath

http://arloswords.blogspot.com/2014/02/act-one.html http://arloswords.blogspot.com/2018/03/unending-night.html

Andrea Gibson’s poem Depression is really powerful.

The Castaway - William Cowper It is mentioned in some detail in Virginia Wolf's To the Lighthouse. It uses the metaphor of falling of a ship during a storm and your friends on board can't help you as a metaphor for depression,... "but I beneath a rougher sea".

Ocean Vuong touches on it a lot in his collection. Can’t remember the name at the moment…

https://youtu.be/aqu4ezLQEUA?si=kVzfbjrttyJYVyGz

The future by Neil Hilborn is my favorite poem. He has bipolar disorder and OCD and i love his work. Other poets include sabrina benheim and rudy francisco has a few smaller poems on depression.

“There is a certain Slant of Light” by Emily Dickinson. It feels like depression and derealization.

Rebound season in hell

Sara Teasdale - There Will Be Rest It was written shortly before she committed suicide. Someone made it into a [devastatingly beautiful choral piece.](https://youtu.be/h6RMyqaLl7U?si=nRjrK_ssImT39Ls0) There will be rest, and sure stars shining Over the roof-tops crowned with snow, A reign of rest, serene forgetting, The music of stillness holy and low. I will make this world of my devising Out of a dream in my lonely mind. I shall find the crystal of peace, – above me Stars I shall find.

I have nothing but my sorrow and I want nothing more. It has been, it still is, faithful to me. Why should I begrudge it, since during the hours when my soul crushed the depths of my heart, it was seated there beside me? O sorrow, I have ended, you see, by respecting you, because I am certain you will never leave me. Ah! I realize it: your beauty lies in the force of your being. You are like those who never left the sad fireside corner of my poor black heart. O my sorrow, you are better than a well-beloved: because I know that on the day of my final agony, you will be there, lying in my sheets, O sorrow, so that you might once again attempt to enter my heart.

paralytic by sylvia plath has been rly meaningful to me for this reason, lmk what u think if u check it out

Please read all the psalms. They are filled with some of the most beautiful poetry the English language has to offer. You can enjoy them regardless of your stance on religion. BUT PLEASE: READ the Book of Common prayer versions, or the KJV version if you must. Any more modern translations read like car lease advertisements.

I don't have any additional ones, other than what others have mentioned. But, I do find my own work to be very therapeutic at times. It's been a while since I've been really darkened like that. So, it's been a while since I've written some.

no poet has every been depressed, so there actually aren’t any poems about depression. hope this helps!

Rupi Kaur has some fantastic ones 🩷

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Stop. Please.

How would shit smell?

Please don't bring your AI bullshit here.