I Still Have Bad Days
by Marissa Carty
I welcome bad days now,
embrace the rain with
butterflies on my rainboots
shamefully, I needed the data to prove it
and Scientific verse delivered:
darkness really does relieve the light
I know now that a good life
does not equate to a sum of good days
no longer do I fear gloom
or angst or restlessness or loneliness
the hopeless moments are still unpleasant
but not unbearable
nor a bad omen of worse tomorrows
and what’s more, now
I am the steaming lavender tea
I gift myself
when the bad news refuses to yield
I am the blanket I wrap around myself
on stormy evenings
Compton, William C.; Hoffman, Edward L.. Positive Psychology (p. 70). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition. “People who scored a 10 on a 10-point scale of happiness were actually worse off than those who scored an 8 or 9.”
Writing Prompt: Journal for 10 minutes about the challenges you’ve been facing lately. Choose a line from the entry and build a poem around it.
Marissa Carty is a poet inspired by well-being, social connection, and nature. Originally from Hopkinton, MA, Marissa grew up on a lake where she developed a deep relationship with nature. She moved to Boston to study psychology and dance in Boston University’s Class of 2022, where she completed a poetry collection on human flourishing as her keystone project through the Kilachand Honors College. She infuses both science and spirituality into her work and loves to use poetry as a coping mechanism and a celebration of life’s ups and downs.