Yep, 1996 shines through as a year of very good, yet very sad poems.  I was riding home in my car after yet another night at a night club.  I thought, Here I Am, I pulled out a napkin and wrote it down in the dark.  When I got home, I sat at my computer and wrote out my best poem, I bet it made me cry fifty times, but Here I Am.

Here I Am

Here I am, adrift in a sea of humanity

tears fill my eyes, sometimes I can't see

 another day has come and gone

where, and why did it all go wrong

I see old friends, sometimes for the first time

they are all out there, walking that fine line

 I do all I can, I try to make do

it's a bunch of shit that I put myself through

Here I am, one in a million, feel light as a feather

I need to pull the right strings, pull myself together

 I go out, stay busy, I don't stay at home

so how come I still feel so awfully alone

The tragedy of loneliness comes from within

it's a feeling one gets when they don't think they fit in

 to look at your friends who you've gone to see

then ask yourself if they would come to see me

But most of all, it's the sadness inside

it's the sudden urge to go run and hide

 where feelings of inadequacy all seem to thrive

here I am, I'm lonely, but I'm still alive

Daniel Copper  10-18-96