Saturday, July 28, 2012

important things

important things

I don't write,
write poems, 
anymore.

I used to.
write them
a lot, now
when I want to write about your mouth, and
how your lips would press, and the words were held
behind your teeth
or, years later how
my first taste of loukoumades
created a sensation in my mouth that made
my knees bend, and that when I put my fingers
on my lips to lick them,
I thought of you.

thought of why I used to,
used to write about
the important things,
like the shape of your mouth
and the sensation of honey on my tongue, and
old wishes for us.

then I remember,
remember how
you wouldn't look into my eyes
or touch me
unless you had to, and that,
and that, it was as if
you were afraid.

I don't write,
write poems,
anymore, because my words,
all of them, were for you, and
now I think I should
keep them,
keep them, for myself.

5 comments:

Young Kim said...

Sometimes

Sometimes things don't go, after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don't fail.
Sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.

A people sometimes will step back from war,
elect an honest man, decide they care
enough, that they can't leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.

Sometimes our best intentions do not go
amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen; may it happen for you.

- Sheenagh Pugh

(with apologies for the gender-biased language)

glasshill said...

thanks Young, sometimes our best intentions... yeah, that...

daily llama said...

Don't stop writing, Ruth. This is very good stuff.

daily llama said...

Very moving piece of poetry, Ruth. Love the repetition of "keep them" - heart wrenching. You're very good at open heart writing. You have no fear and that is so much the key to best scribbling. Never stop. The world can't afford to lose even one poet...

glasshill said...

Thank you Patrick. I think that is the highest complement I've received about my poetry. I am very humbled by it.

and... I have plenty of fear, writing about it helps. I've started again after about a year of only drawing and photography. It feels good to be writing again.

thank you again.