In the April of Covid 19
Day 6
“A stranger has come to share my room in the house not right in the head, a girl mad as birds”
Dylan Thomas
Others
Others may say I
have lost my sense of self along with all my feathers
plucking out poems
stuffing pillows with my night terrors and love songs.
They might point
out my inability to fuse fact and metaphoric pintails
but you know the vein
I have struck with sharpened quill digging deeper
than face value
you have lost that part of me that I have lost in you.
You know what others
do not: our unspoken stories fly truth to the sun.
Skylover Wordlist: Others
Play It Again Toads: Speaking in the Voice of Another
Ooh, that last line in particular makes me go all shivery with delight!
ReplyDeleteMarvellous! Thank you, Rosemary.
DeleteOh my aching heart this is gorgeous, Kerry!💌 The pain, the hurt and longing is so palpable here especially; "stuffing pillows with my night terrors and love songs." You have left me breathless and in awe!💘
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your emotive response, Sanaa. It is appreciated.
DeleteI love the losing of feathers and plucking of poems. Your closing lines are completely wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI was inspired by the young woman in Dylan Thomas's poem.
DeleteI love the extended bird/feather metaphor, Kerry, and the idea of stuffing pillows with night terrors and love songs – I seem to have a pillow stuffed full myself, and they wake me up at night. The final line is so liberating!
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to sleep these nights.. so many nightmares, and fearful scenarios to keep one awake.
DeleteOur Mother-to-be was stretching her legs yesterday, she wasn't quarantined. The mother bird down the street has hatched already, she and young ones went for a walk yesterday.
ReplyDelete..
Nice, Jim.
DeleteMy pillow is so stuffed with feathers and bits I lie awake at night trying to find a place for more. Love your ending!
ReplyDeleteYou know how it goes, Susie.
DeleteWow. Stunning.
ReplyDeleteWhat a delightful read this is Kerry.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for reading.
DeleteWhat a lovely poem - so candid sort :)
ReplyDeleteIs it candid? An interesting reading. Tx
DeleteThe extended bird metaphor is amazing....plucking poems...and then stuffing pillows with my night terrors and love songs. These words to me are the most chilling:
ReplyDelete"the vein
I have struck with sharpened quill digging deeper
than face value"
The last words after the colon give a sense of soaring...of relief, of freedom.
Just an amazing write, Kerry!
This is a wonderful (and also terrifying) poem... those pillows I know all too well.
ReplyDeleteAhh, brilliant! Absolutely brilliant. A burning into ... the sun.
ReplyDeleteWhat a poem!
I love the quote you've chosen as inspiration, and how your words then dance the edge, with a spark or three of madness, tinged and stained, to alight into something that is intimate and terrifying. But such as it is, so often, in the deep nest of what we logically call nightmares, and/or madness, the pure white truth speaks with a blinding voice.
this really is just amazing - powerful and dynamic Kerry - a fire-breath filled energy or words.