I am quitting smoking for the third time in my life and thought I would share this poem that was written to help me remember the "pleasures" of this particular addiction. I do not tell it from the mountain top and for the most part don't care if people smoke or not but I thought this poem was good enough to share. The poem doesn't have a title but I was thinkng along the lines of "Demon Weed" or something similar. If anyone thinks up a better title then please feel free to post it. I stink at titling just about everything I write. Well, thats enough introduction. Enjoy!
The deal has been made
Smoky tendrils invade
Stealing the last will to feel
Graceless entwine
Slow creeping vine
Moving inside to congeal
Control without name
Submission to flame
Burn with the glowing red eye
Become painful dooms
With stench that consumes
Soft promise of peace a dead lie
The embers unvoiced
To embrace was my choice
Alone I committed this sin
Drawing in smoke
Chest tight as I choke
Pray release from poison within
"Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them" John Updike
I enjoy a cigarette here and there after a stressfull day, it helps me relax. Cigars on occasion are good aswell to have with a couple of friends. And Always the courtesy aof going outside where it won't be a bother for anyone else.
Am I a smoker? Well I don't chain smoke if that's what you mean. Do I plan on quitting? Theres nothing to really quit, my last cigarette was about a month ago and I don't feel guilty about it at all. The poll is kind of biased.
I never smoke, obviously. I pity the kids who start before they're eighteen, and even then it's not all too smart a thing to do. No offense to anybody, it's just I've recently had a family member die because of cancer from smoking. I just really hate even the idea.
After seeing my father smoke 5-6 packs of ciggarettes a day, it was sort of an obvious decision to not smoke. The only reason he quit was this conversation:
Doctor-How old is your daughter?
Dad-(answers)
Doctor-Do you want to go to her graduation?
Dad-Yes.
Doctor-Either quit smoking now, or you have three months to live.
Dad-Yes sir.
This was after he went to the doctor after having pneumonia twice in a row. He moved out of where he was currently staying, because everyone smoked, and my grandmother stopped smoking soon after he did, or actually perhaps a bit before.
I've lived with second hand smoke all my life, and I know its detrimental to your health. My grandmother smoked 1-3 ciggarettes a day, not many at all but my grandparents house was the gathering place where dad and I went every single weekend. She currently has lung cancer and can't breathe well, and has had to undergo chemo. My father is in one of the beginning stages of mouth cancer, in remission thankfully--they removed all the cancerous cells from his mouth.
And people complain in my state because we passed a no smoking statewide law this past November.
Honestly.. I do have respect for anyone stopping smoking, or attempting to. I was there when my father tried gum, patches (newly released), and finally just had to flush the entire box down the toilet, and quit cold turkey because nothing else worked.
-k
Dame Edana Genvaldi - Knight of Argentum Vigilo Brion Genvaldi - "Obtainer" of Lost Items Amarenth Dormagic - A Trickster
Famous Last Words: "A lich, huh? No problem; I steal his spellbook."
Evelond Formos wrote:No offense to anybody, it's just I've recently had a family member die because of cancer from smoking. I just really hate even the idea.
I hear that. We all die, but it's the people that are left behind that suffer and it's a cruel fate for someone you love to suffer and all you can do to help is say, "get well soon."
I smoke, and when given opportunity I can smoke like a chimney. However, I can do quite long without as well and I don't really think about it then either. I -am- addicted, though.. But I think it's more being addicted to a habit, then addicted to nicotine.
Beer without a cig is a no-no. Driving a car or riding a bike without a cig is impossible. And a 9 hour workingday without a few smokebreaks would be undoable, heh.
Evelond Formos wrote: I pity the kids who start before they're eighteen, and even then it's not all too smart a thing to do. No offense to anybody, it's just I've recently had a family member die because of cancer from smoking. I just really hate even the idea.
Me too Eve on all points.
Never worry about offending smokers because most of us don't mind offending you.
My favorite uncle died from lung cancer, three packs a day with only one good lung, and I miss him but it isn't why I quit.
"Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them" John Updike
used to smoke, a lot, if you could set fire to it and inhale it I was a happy camper. 9 years later I decided I didn't want to anymore but was rubbish at giving up, I could go from monday to friday fine but as soon as I got a beer in my hand on a friday afternoon that was it, and back on the gorgeous fags (yes yes harhar my Yanky friends *grin*) for the whole weekend.
So I went to a hypnotherapist, and from that day forth have not smoked again. 3 years Nov 7th just gone. I recommend it, best move ever made
I don't feel any shame, I won't apologise
--
"...I do not entertain the possibility of an afterlife, or any deity capable of offering it. Given the world that he created, it would be an impiety against God to believe in him..."
I recently quit both cigarettes and "other" smoking activities. I smoked cigarettes for not even a year, and while I just enjoy the act of smoking I gave it up because family members have asked me to.. It's hard. Other things are simply because I can't afford to fail any tests when trying to get a new career..
So if I seem snappy at all, it's because I gave up every sort of vice I have at my disposal aside from the occasional beer.
Oh, and freakin wonderful poem, Diva. I enjoyed it immensely once I took time to read it instead of whining about how I hate not smoking.
