Bipolar / Compulsive Poem: A Savage Tenderness Poem by Carlton's Other Voices

In my thirties I began to write poems around the theme of tenderness being a two edged sword; a Janus coin, on one side a gentle yearning for love and on the other a cold hearted and fierce desire to extinguish my pain in the warm embrace of a stranger.

On my PC I have a file called ‘All Poems’. I have just searched these fragmented messages from my past and found the following phrases that include the word ‘tenderness’.

A savage tenderness
Tenderness and fire
The roaring tide of tenderness
The other side of tenderness

Sometimes, before we are diagnosed with a psychological challenge, we already know what our malaise is. I’m not at all sure that naming it and drowning it with medication is the answer.