Who’ll sell me a flower today?
I have so many in my heart:
but all clasped
in heavy bunches –
trampled –
done in.
Category: Poetry
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Antonia Pozzi – Modesty (1933)
If a word of mine
pleases you
and you tell me
even just with your eyes
I open wide
in a joyful smile –
but I tremble
like a young mother
who even blushes when
a passerby tells her
her little boy is handsome.
___
1 February 1933
In December 2, 1938, Antonia Pozzi lay down in a field on the outskirts of Milan and swallowed poison. She died the following day, leaving behind diaries, notebooks and loose pages of poetry, documenting her twenty-six years of life. From these, her father Roberto Pozzi, a Milanese lawyer, selected and edited her first collection, publishing it as Parole the following year.
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Rumi Kaur – Milk and Honey Poetry
I’ve had the biggest pleasure of picking up a poetry book which left me shaken and in awe of the raw talent I saw.
Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.
Categories
The Swing By Robert Louis Stevenson Poem
How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside–
Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown–
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!
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Milk and Honey – Rupi Kaur #2
I started reading Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur and I’m getting goosebumps. I love every single poem and during the next few weeks, I’ll extract the ones I liked the most and tell you why I chose them.
the therapist places
the doll in front of you
it is the size of girls
your uncles like touchingpoint to where his hands were
you point to the spot
between its legs the one
he fingered out of you
like a confessionhow’re you feeling
you pull the lump
in your throat out
with your teeth
and say fine
numb really– midweek sessions
This poem made me shiver. It’s raw, it’s painful, it’s child abuse. Not by one man, but by many “uncles” who like to touch. The pain is almost visceral as the words picked to describe it pop up like massive bold spots. “teeth”, “lump”, “fingered out”, “numb”.
Carolyn Knight wrote a book called Working With Adult Survivors of Childhood Trauma that states:
“Trauma, by definition, is the result of exposure to an inescapably stressful event that overwhelms a person’s coping mechanisms.” – United States Department of Health and Human Services
She points out that an important aspect of an event (or pattern of events) is that it exceeds the victim’s ability to cope and is therefore overwhelming. A child should not have to cope with abuse, and when abuse occurs, a child is not equipped psychologically to process it. The adults in their lives are meant to be role models on how to regulate emotions and provide a safe environment.
Note: If you suspect that you or a loved one is suffering from child abuse, please report it to your local Child Protection Services – or the police, if a child is in immediate danger. The longer that abuse continues, the higher the risk of causing severe symptoms.
#2
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Surprised by Joy BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Surprised by joy—impatient as the Wind
I turned to share the transport—Oh! with whom
But Thee, long buried in the silent Tomb,
That spot which no vicissitude can find?
Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind—
But how could I forget thee?—Through what power,
Even for the least division of an hour,
Have I been so beguiled as to be blind
To my most grievous loss!—That thought’s return
Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore,
Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn,
Knowing my heart’s best treasure was no more;
That neither present time, nor years unborn
Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.
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When Great Trees Fall By Maya Angelou
When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.
Categories
Milk and Honey Poem by Rupi Kaur
I started reading Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur and I’m getting goosebumps. I love every single poem and during the next few weeks, I’ll extract the ones I liked the most and tell you why I chose them.
the one who arrives after you
will remind me love is
supposed to be softhe will taste
like the poetry
i wish i could write
This is a story about a break-up. She is talking to her ex, telling him that she can do better and there will be someone who can “remind [her] love is supposed to be soft”. As opposed to what? Hard edges? Long silences? Violence and fists? Her previous relationship sounds rough, the love long gone, otherwise she wouldn’t have to remember it.
The last stanza gave me the shivers. Upon kissing the new love, she will be able to taste hope, something better, a goodness, a thrill, a bit of success. The hope is counter-balanced by a heavy feeling of being inadequate and saddened by the inability to reach one’s wanted success. Just because you can see it, doesn’t mean you can “be” it.
As everything, all the good things are in the future. A new love, less hurt, more poetry.
#1
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I Sit Beside the Fire and Think (Tolkien)
“I sit beside the fire and think
Of all that I have seen
Of meadow flowers and butterflies
In summers that have been