The Fog

The 5th Writing 201: Poetry assignment was to write an elegy; a first-person poem on themes of longing, loss, and mourning. The word prompt was “fog.”  My poem is very rough, because I definitely don’t know what I am doing on this one!

I chose to write about my experience with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome during the 1980’s.  While the poem itself is unskilled, I believe there will probably be numerous readers who will relate to my experience.

The Fog

Five years living in the fog
Everything is slow; can’t think, can’t do.
Exhaustion never ends.
Plan after plan put on hold.
Dreading to go to bed at night
Can’t face yet another dawn.
Walking to the kitchen to make some food?
Not worth it… why try?
Heavy
Heavy
Heavy
Five years later, fog is lifting
Good days, bad days, but it’s shifting.
Will it end? Will it return?
Dare I hope?
May I hope?
Hope?

17 thoughts on “The Fog”

  3. Ah yes, the fog, karuna, you have captured it so well…
    For me it was fibromyalgia and the fog was one of the first things to disappear when I finally changed to a plant-based, whole-food, gluten free diet.

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      1. Yeah – confirmation! I didn’t lose all my symptoms and I have flares of discomfort and ongoing problems with sleep, but the MOST welcome relief was to be able to THINK again.

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      4. Thanks so much for mentioning my blog in your post! There is a problem with the photography link though. I couldn’t see the link so I don’t know if it is because you can’t link to a category or because something is wrong with the link. Maybe you could just link to the blog and tell them to open the photography category!

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  5. I really like this poem Karuna. 🙂 I feel you have captured the sensation of fatigue beautifully and yet you do not leave us with despair. the final words about hope are uplifting and one believes you will succeed. 🙂

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