Lockdown writing: ten things about The Poem.
3/3
7. Teach The Poem to run its fingers over sharp edges.
To cry in an unknown language. To bleed until living
and dying are equal options. 8. If you already know what
you’re going to say, don’t say it. The Poem is not your
lover. No part of its body should be so familiar. The Poem
and you are always in your first meeting. 9. You are the
only reader to whom The Poem must make sense. To
everyone else, it is the magic mirror in which their
wounds fill, their scars fade, in which they look more
beautiful. The Poem is their illicit paramour. 10. You
are not the mother who birthed The Poem. You are the
god that created it. It is the being that will forever
ruin your garden of eden, then kneel before you and beg,
as if you alone have the power to forgive the desecration.
The Poem
is waiting for the poet
who is waiting for it
Also Read:
Curfew: Day 45 (Ten things about The Poem 2/3)
Curfew: Day 44 (Ten things about The Poem 1/3)
THOUGHT PURGE 
“Teach The Poem to run its fingers over sharp edges.To cry in an unknown language.” Just one of the beautiful lines I love in this poem.
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Thanks so much, Susie.
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An insightful lesson in poetry and for writing. The creative expressions of our thoughts and I will hold on to these as a reminder of the question of why we write.
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Thank you 🙂
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Wow, this is fantastic!
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Thanks so much!
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very wise poem. thanks for sharing it. best regards,
Hamokine Poet
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Thank you 🙂
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Beautiful poetry❣️I, too, went back and read all parts together. I don’t think I’ve ever read a more meaningful description of writing poetry🌹🙏
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Thanks so much. Glad you liked it.
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I certainly often feel I spend more time waiting for the poem that it does waiting for me! Sometimes the midnight epiphanies are slow to surface!! Good write.
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Thank you, Beverly. 🙂
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“The Poem
and you are always in your first meeting.”
How I love and believe that. Every reading and rereading of a poem is a first kiss, again and again…
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🙂 Absolutely!
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It’s always good to have a bit of blood to give vitality to a poem. The readers are the richer for coming into contact with pieces with a strong pumping heart.
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🙂 Thanks, Rommy.
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Writing this way does in fact make the author someone who can cope with the crisis rather that be panicked by it or just act stupid such as those who pretend it won’t affect them and ignore all the rules and advice.
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Yes, I think it has helped to make it a daily ritual during the lockdown. Thanks, Robin.
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I absolutely love this especially; “The Poem and you are always in your first meeting.” Yes! 💝💝
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Thank you, Sanaa.
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Oh yes, excellent thoughts on the poem. And I agree totally.
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Thanks so much, Anthony.
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This is quite powerful, especially the 10th. Also love the short poem and how waiting was used. It’s like a circle of sort.
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Yes, circle is exactly what I had in mind. Thanks Tim!
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There have been so many days in this curfew, Rajani, that we begin t wonder when it will end. The best things about it is that we have space and time to write. Your focus on ‘ten things about The Poem’ is fascinating and I went back to read days 44 and 45.
I especially identify with the lines:
‘…The Poem is not your
lover. No part of its body should be so familiar. The Poem
and you are always in your first meeting’
and
‘…You are the
only reader to whom The Poem must make sense. To
everyone else, it is the magic mirror in which their
wounds fill, their scars fade, in which they look more
beautiful. The Poem is their illicit paramour.’
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Thanks so much for reading them all, Kim. I am writing everyday but sometimes it feels disconnected. Am looking forward to a break after the lockdown to see if I can find some direction to the writing, away from this pandemic.
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Absolutely beautiful and yes I think so too that you should meet the poem as for the first time. I am not that far yet. Need to learn to trust but I will grow into it as yes a poem comes through you not from you
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I like the idea that the poet is only a channel – thanks, Marja.
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Well of course I went back and read the previous two also. OMG!!! Such stunning writing. Only you could have written this! I’m completely blown away, thrilled, enchanted….
(Just one thing. Are you coining a new word, or did you mean ‘depredation’? (‘Deprivation’ doesn’t quite make sense.)
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Thanks so much, Rosemary. Am delighted you read all three. I will put them together at some point. And thanks for pointing out the blooper. Fixed it with the word I was thinking about- tells a lot about the importance of editing! Much, much appreciated!
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Mine are often, at the beginning, like children playing hide and seek in blue indigo twilight. Distant giggles and whispers that suddenly appear and startle me.
Thank you so much for these last four pieces. They are fantastic. I haven’t been here, too busy doing my own thing. I’d apologize but that never suffices. So, I’ll just leave these words and run off back to my own corner, grateful to have been here. Thank you,
Elizabeth
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Thank you, Elizabeth. We’re all in those little corners, only emerging sporadically for air. I so get what you mean. Am glad you liked the Ten things series of posts.
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Sigh. Comment disappeared. I love “the poem and you are always in your first meeting.” And that the poem need only make sense to the poet.
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Thank you, Sherry. Both comments did show up!
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