Poetry by Rowan Evans

Author’s Note

People sometimes talk about depression like it’s constant sadness.

For me, it’s rarely that simple.

Sometimes it’s pressure. Sometimes it’s exhaustion. Sometimes it’s numbness so quiet you don’t notice how deep you’ve sunk until something shifts and suddenly you can breathe again.

That’s where this piece came from.

Not from a dramatic breakthrough— just a morning where the weight felt lighter.

And when you’ve carried storms inside yourself for long enough, even small moments of relief can feel almost unreal.

But one of the hardest things to learn about living with depression is this:

good days don’t erase bad ones, and bad days don’t erase good ones.

The storm passing doesn’t mean it’ll never return.

It means you survived it long enough to recognize clear skies when they arrive.

That’s what Reading the Sky became about for me.

Not curing the storm. Not defeating it.

Just learning its patterns. Learning when the pressure shifts. Learning how to keep breathing through both the thunder and the quiet afterward.

And maybe most importantly—

allowing yourself to enjoy the clean air when it finally comes.

— Rowan Evans

Reading the Sky
Poetry by Rowan Evans

I woke today
feeling different—

like everything
had changed,
in an instant.

Like the storm inside
had finally gone silent.
The winds had died,
but I was alive.

Smile on my face—
for the first time,
didn’t feel out of place.

I could still see
lightning on the edges
of my perception—
feel the rumble
of thunder
in my chest.

It was softer now.

This storm had passed,
but another
would surely come.

It’s a cycle—

and these things
have a season.

The storms?

They come
and go.

That’ll never change.

It’s learning
to read the sky,
to feel
when the pressure shifts.

Now let me say this plain…

I’ve got depression.

It lives in my chest,
waiting to teach me lessons.

It’s a storm
I’ve weathered—

more than
any one person should.

That’s what makes
days like these—
feel like the cleanest air
I’ve ever breathed.

If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]