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Life on standby

Shana Will 1992

August 23 
Acrostic
My rapacity precedes me
Anxiety cripples me
My enemy
Macerating my reality
Quick to caution
Woe to the person I could be
If only
Zealous amygdala,
sedulously it directs me
Internally
Hackneyed phrases remind me
You only live once
Seize every opportunity
A glint of premature confidence shines
Frenzied Panic begins to rise
A familiar warning sign
Clawing my esophagus
My expectations, limited
Perturbation and anguish my personality
Victoriously, it cloaks me
The verdict clear
My jurisdiction, fear
I yearn to truly live
My life is not mine
Hunger and apprehension intertwine
Tirelessly I tread
Biding time

About this poem

This poem is about the negative effects that anxiety has on my life

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Written on June 25, 2023

Submitted by Wshana060 on August 24, 2023

30 sec read
54

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAAABAACAAADAEFGHIAAJJKGGLM
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 610
Words 101
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 27
Full analysis for Life on standby »

Shana Will

I have been writing poetry most of my life and I just recently started writing again to express my feelings after going through difficult times. more…

All Shana Will poems | Shana Will Books

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1 Comment
  • Vixility
    Vixility
    These were the notes I took while reading through the August poems (I was in the competition as well). Are they close to the message your poem intended?

    “An existential poem about the dread of living and maybe even ‘choosing’ a way of life. Pressured by concepts like ‘life is too short’ or ‘you only live once’ the narrator almost feels forced into ‘living life’ which exacerbates the anxiety. Notwithstanding the fact that the narrator ‘yearns to truly live’, the steps to do so seem to be elusive, hence the ‘standby’. 
    LikeReply 17 months ago

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"Life on standby" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/168196/life-on-standby>.

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Who wrote the poem ״Invictus״?
A Sylvia Plath
B William Ernest Henley
C Thomas Hardy
D Oscar Wilde