This poem was first published in Tips for Writers Magazine (2013) and republished in my poetry collection, Chemotherapy for the Soul, launched by Canadian publisher Fowlpox Press (2017). It appears on page 1 in the collection.
Circle of Friends
Leilanie Stewart © 2017
We drifted in and out of bars back then
But when I drifted across the ocean
And came back, things were different
The talk was still the same,
Though the laughter had changed-
I had changed
And all of you had grown stagnant,
Bitter in your old age, simply because
You’d had a lifetime filled with
I’ll do this, and
What if that-
None of which amounted to anything
What a shame
What a waste
A circle of friends
Whose hopes and dreams and morals
Had no way of escaping a circle
That never had a beginning
Or an end in the first place.
About Leilanie Stewart
Leilanie Stewart is an award-winning author and poet from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She writes ghost and psychological horror, as well as experimental poetry. Her writing confronts the nature of self; her novels feature main characters on a dark psychological journey who have a crisis and create a new sense of identity. She began writing for publication while working as an English teacher in Japan, a career pathway that has influenced themes in her writing. Her former career as an Archaeologist has also inspired her writing and she has incorporated elements of archaeology and mythology into both her fiction and poetry.
In addition to promoting her own work, Leilanie runs Bindweed Anthologies, a creative writing publication with her writer husband, Joseph Robert. Aside from publishing pursuits, Leilanie enjoys spending time with her husband and their lively literary lad, a voracious reader of sea monster books.
Leilanie Stewart 