The greatest poem ever known

The greatest poem ever known
Is one all poets have outgrown:
The poetry, innate, untold
Of being only four years old.

Still young enough to be a part
Of Nature’s great impulsive heart,
Born comrade of bird, beast and tree
And unselfconscious as the bee-

And yet with lovely reason skilled
Each day new paradise to build
Elate explorer of each sense,
Without dismay, without pretence!

In your unstained transparent eyes
There is no conscience, no surprise:
Life’s queer conundrums you accept,
Your strange Divinity still kept…

And Life, that sets all things in rhyme,
May make you poet, too, in time–
But there were days, O tender elf,
When you were Poetry itself!

Christopher Morley

fantasy as a way of self-soothing

Fantasy was my main coping device for living in a dysfunctional family. Spiderman was one fantasy I had and would spend hours a day being Spiderman, climbing all over the veranda, making sure I wouldn’t touch the ground. Once I was sexually abused from age 6 to 9, I started to fantasy about having sex or be in sexual relationships with others. By the time I hit age 20 I was completely addicted to sexual fantasy and relationship fantasy.

I do have a relatively ‘normal’ fantasy where I have lots of money and a beautiful house and life. The only problem is that I’m still self-soothing with fantasy, instead of connecting with real people.

Gavin.