Libraries, for example, are good places
to escape the viciousness of people
when they try to get
inside of you.
Between the shelves
there is plenty of space
to lick your wounds.
This is something I do often.
My first twenty years weren’t easy
I was always busy
with the important occupation
of dismantling myself—an exhausting
and ungrateful enterprise.
I did this so earnestly that I was, in fact,
convinced
I had invented the vocation.
I just kept carving
and carving.
Did I ever succeed? in scraping clean
the rind. in turning myself
inside-out. What is left?
after such a thorough cauterization.
One raw little soul.
I can still taste that grief
in my mouth like champagne, icy
& no hint of sweetness.
I could have stayed inside all day.
Meanwhile on the quad, a pretty girl
walks her small white dog
across the grass & shadows
sprawl across the perfect lawn
with their splotchy memory.
Although memory, I am learning,
always give back much more color
than what was there in the first place.
I look back now, and I want to feel
that grass
on my skin. But all I can remember
is that I hated my life
and I hated my life.
The feeling comes
and goes, but at least I find
a quiet absolution in my landscape:
the restfulness of books
and sunlight in an empty room
that transforms the isolation
into something else entirely.
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Dare I say you are damn good poet….I dare it dammit I dare it…you are a damn good poet..:)
One raw little soul. Just right.
Lovely, and quite moving.
I love the image of “shadows sprawled across the lawn.” It’s incredibly evocative. Thank you for sharing!
into something else entirely. yes. just so. a very relate-able piece, for me.
I’m usually not big on free verse poetry, but I really like your style. Your imagery is remarkable, your feelings are deep and vivid, and your repetition is genuine, natural, fitting. Very well done.
Hiii…I think you are really good. Truly. And I am honored that a writer of your calibre liked anything on my blog, so thanks for that. I want to encourage you to keep writing…you are like Rumplestiltskin…you take the straw and stuff of life and spin it into gold.
For real…great stuff.
Charissa
PS: The poem under your pic? I just want to say that the God of Sun and Snow…She knows you. 🙂