Your poetry touches/connects with me for a couple of reasons - (1) I really appreciate the art and skill of well written poetry and I certainly see you as an artist (2) 9 years ago I was in a similar space, although I could not have captured it so well  - the sence of disbelief that I had that one human being could treat another human being is such a way yet still retain a social/public persona of being such a nice person was particularly hard for me

 The "mantra" I wrote for myself at the time was .....

 I want to be myself

not all that good; not all that bad

I want to be liked for being myself

not for playing someone elses part

I want to be spontanious & fun....

Feel the earth; the moon; & the sun

I want to be proud of who I am

and all that I can become

I GIVE NO ONE POWER OVER ME as I learn to fly free

THis "mantra" helped me though all the times I seemed to loose direction & purpose & it seems as relevant to me today as it did back then (although I have added a couple of lines over the 9 years - it started off a little shorter).  I also had patches of attempting to capture the darker times as a way of getting the thoughts out of my head  although these tended to be on scraps of paper so never got kept.  In hindsight I think I would have liked to have keep them so I could remind myself of the many stages in my journey.

As I started with - I wish to acknowledge and celebrate in artist in you - the world is richer through the creativity and skill of people like yourself.

thanks for sharing

lam

Any thoughts of what your mantra might be?