An afternoon and a damp half-moon
On the lands below my hip:
blades splitting flesh
harrowing skeletons, soiled beds
after the digging. I never knew
ink could spill straight from the eye
or dye sheets the color of longing.
Yet his earthen tomb of orbs
burrow anything but gold. He tills
after his thunder.
This evening my lamp is a bright half-moon
whose other half sits in silence
striking memory like a match,
mining a river from his storm.
There is a pen that betweens now and him.
It says the ink is flowing;
the shovel says the ink runs not for us.
Please give a detailed explanation about the meaning and main idea of this poem.
This poem is grief personified: a reflection on how the feeling of longing creeps up on us even before the person we long for is gone. It is a public declaration of recognizing the death of a connection before bidding farewell. Smoke after the fire, grief before one sees the ashes.
Please explain your writing and thought process regarding this poem.
I wrote this after a reflection on pre-emptive grief. How one can seem present, yet absent at the same time.
Why did you choose to write this poem?
I've recently lost many people in my life, and that recurring pattern led me to reflect on the feelings of fear and anxiety I get before I lose them, or when I leave the relationship. It's a mixture of saying goodbye and the realization that love once shared is still worth celebrating no matter how short.
Do you have any tips or anything to share with the youth writers who may be reading this?
Feel things wholly, and write them in pieces.
Best thing I've read on here yet!