Self-Pity Poem by Ross Maclennan

Why is this sea so deep and dark, when all around so light?
Can't others see how deep it is? So deep and dark and right.
O wilfulness, O wantoness, cold lust for night, not day.
Warm hands rejected, faces close and puzzled, look away

To miss the yearing far below, the blind and silent scream,
To understand: be understood, to live and not to dream.
To know there is no pot of gold, the rainbow has no end.
To laugh despite and not in spite, not weak but strong - to bend.

But coils of passion bind and hold, familiar, black and tight.
A sin to want to drift away. A crime to try and fight.
Reach out again, once more again and yet again once more,
To aid a dark and drowning heart that yearns to reach the shore.