When I first started blogging, I was sharing my poems freely – not that many people read them, back then I was lucky to get a couple of hundred views per month – but I didn’t care, it was inspiring me to write more. And that was what this blog was all about: creative writing on a regular basis.
Then I was told that it would be better to save my poems for submissions to literary journals, because even this not-quite-polished appearance on my blog might count as ‘previously published’. So I stopped sharing my poetry and my blog has become more about book reviews.
I enjoy reading and reviewing, but I also want to write more and share more. And seeing so many of my online publications disappearing, I realise that it’s better to have loved and shared (and not been formally published) than never to be read at all. So here is a rough first draft of a poem – or rather, two separate poems which have the same atmosphere and might belong together. Possibly.
There’s things about me I cannot fathom
there’s things about me you want to control
the broken wings the lyrics brushed down
to minimum waste no polish no gain
I don’t want to be haunted by you
I never used the word perverse to describe myself
we unravel somewhere
out of sight unloved unnoticed
you are made of the cowardice of the morning after
Leave lightly or do not leave at all
no kiss, no touch but forever this
the clouds grow thickest when the summit’s near
and miles to go before I’m there
if you can’t be free, be a dream
if you can’t be free, be a mystery
if you can’t be free, learn the art of losing
not dead, not alive
what can’t we let go?
findingtimetowrite 