Thursday, April 2, 2020

Shards and Threads


“I do not know myself sometimes, or how to measure and name and count out the grains that make me what I am.” ― Virginia Woolf, The Waves

I am my unknown,
an hour vacillating
between memories
and chasing minutes.

When I think I have
the mountaintop in sight,
I blink to find myself
roaming a cactus valley.

Are scars lessons learned
or the armor of survival?
Shards and threads are mute,
but I press them for answers.

Where are you in the empty streets?
I’m a thousand impulses
searching for direction.
I can’t decide if I’m lost or unfamiliar with freedom.

 ©Susie Clevenger 2020

napowrimo2020


6 comments:

  1. This is fiery hot and exquisite in its expressive quality, Susie! I love; "I’m a thousand impulses searching for direction."💘

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  2. Wow! From the mountaintop to the cactus valley, to being lost or unfamiliar with freedom, this poem packs a wallop. Awesome, Susie. Life is clobbering some of us these days. When they sent out a tsunami warning on top of the corona virus, I thought it was a bit much. LOL. Thankfully it got cancelled.

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  3. I love the rise and fall to the cactus depths .... and am particularly enamored by the last stanza - especially the first three lines of it - there is just something so blatantly jarring about the image and how well it describes the just below the surface tension and anxiety. Definitely a poem for the times, but also works its way beyond to embrace more than just this particular scarring, traumatic event.

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  4. I think scars can be both at once.
    Killer last line!

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  5. The time theme of the first stanza resonates with me, Susie, as does the line: ‘I can’t decide if I’m lost or unfamiliar with freedom’.

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