This week let’s write a relapse poem. We’ve all quit something for a while only to return to that something within weeks, days or hours. That something could be an addiction, a bad habit, even a person. Whatever’s drug you back in, post a poem about it in the comments below.
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
Living Poetry 
Let’s try this… again. Hopefully the formatting will stick.
This one is old… VERY old… 40 years+.It is always a bit cringy to read stuff from back then. Nevertheless, it is interesting to read this, to see a person long since gone…and it really fits the prompt. Enjoy.
============================I’ve said it before
A thousand times before
And each time it’s force wanes
And each time I need it more
And each time it’s memory fades
I present to the barred door
And bow low to an icon made
with sweat of work and mind enslaved
Engrossed in reverence
I catch a phrase
Utter by others
in like desperate days
By rote and by letter
I answer the call
to this chaotic worship
I ultimately fall
But in the end
It is I who will pay
Unless somehow I heed the phrase
scratch out on these temple walls
I WILL BE FREED
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Posted by Chris Clarke | February 23, 2026, 10:42 AMThanks for sharing your old poem, Chris.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | February 23, 2026, 6:59 PMHere’s mine :
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Posted by Maggie | February 23, 2026, 1:50 PMLove the couplet “Just the quiet return / to what once felt like oxygen.” Thanks for sharing, Maggie!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | February 23, 2026, 7:02 PMBeautiful words loved reading as the story unfolded.
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Posted by DanielleM | February 23, 2026, 3:27 PMImposter Returns
There is a corner I often turned
turned so many times that it burned,
singed my heart and everything inside
Ashes of words that began from light
Over and over and over I wrote
turning, burning corners,
hoping to see light in place of ash,
Believing that I will meet myself again
in that imposter around the corner that I find…
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Posted by utopicdystopian | February 24, 2026, 10:43 AMFiery! Thanks for sharing.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | February 24, 2026, 6:52 PMHi here is my offering 😃https://poetisatinta.wordpress.com/2026/02/24/the-vow/
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Posted by poetisatinta | February 24, 2026, 5:55 PMNice use of the prompt. Thanks for sharing, Ange!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | February 24, 2026, 7:00 PMThanks for the prompt 🩷
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Posted by poetisatinta | February 25, 2026, 1:53 AMHere’s a (short) new one:
===================
the path was lost
though I moved on
the way back home
could not be found
in circles I walked
spy my old cube
a safe place to perch
past a fractalized room
I grew more and more frantic
as time passed me by
minute upon minute
25 seconds, reality, my mind
with a gasp drawn in
in a gloaming-filled room
consciousness gained
this relapse too soon
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Posted by Chris Clarke | February 24, 2026, 6:27 PMDisturbing! I especially like the “fractalized room”. Well done, Chris!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | February 24, 2026, 7:02 PM