if you called my name but I was already gone
I'm sorry
oh, you never quite felt like you could call me--
I'm sorry
will there be a happily ever after... a crying game
I don't know
I know the incandescent knowledge of nearness
I do know
the history of desire, its statement of purpose
is to know
without looking, the beaconing of new pleasure
we failed
to see our souls were rotating towards danger
we fail
each other unraveling faster than imagination
we wait
circling for directions, feral breath on fur, lying
in wait
__________________________________
Pic: The hand-made dish I found at the thrift yesterday ($2:73!); I nestled some hyacinths, rosemary, baby aloe, and moss together in it. I think tiny daffodils (when I can get some) would look particularly nice because of the yellow flower in the center. I wonder who made this, whom they gave it to, and why it ended up at the thrift store.
13 comments:
Love the poem, love the dish!
Nice find.
I read this poem several times in several different ways. It read well in all of them. One reading was just the long lines and the final short line--amazing! Did you try this exercise after composing it?
A lovely poem! I love the bowl, and agree it will be lovely with daffodils in it. Does it look home made? When I find something lovely like that at a thrift store, I always assume someone died and their family was overrun with things. I think of my in laws, who are thankfully very much with us, but have a big house full of lovely things, and what will we do when they are gone? We will likely pick our favorite few things and let the rest go. We have no room for another entire house of memories.
Beautiful poem. I just read a passage in a book (Ghosts by Dolly Alderton) about the demise of a friendship so this poem feels like an extension of what I’m reading!!
Thanks, Nicole; I feel lucky :)!
Truly!
I did not, Nance! But I'm going to see if it works for me like it did for you... (I started by trying to write a ghazal, but it quickly devolved...)
Thank you!
Thank you, J! And yes, the happiest backstory is that the person it was made for is gone, and I get to cherish it now. The alternative--that someone took the trouble to make it and that it was given away makes me too, too sad.
Thank you, Lisa... Off to look for the book you mentioned. (Thinking there's a lot of death-related reading for you this week!)
I gave Ghosts five stars! Which of the book is about dating in your 30s and the terrible men a person tends to encounter. But it also talks about dealing with that suffers from dementia. I somehow thought this was going to quite a bit of depth to it! Now I’m starting Pageboy which I think made your list of top books for 2024. It’s also something my friend who is a child psychologist that works in a gender clinic had recommended to me previously. That’s the friend I hung out with at the indoor playground last weekend and wow was it depressing to hear what’s happening at her clinic and at gender clinics across the United States. Hers is still open but the situation feels very precarious.
I thought your book was about ghosts not dating, lol.
I usually don't like memoirs and am not into celebrity culture, but Pageboy got to me. Possibly because I have a vested interest via my kids. So much love for people like your friend. I hope they are all able to stay safe and continue to help people.
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