| This Edition's Poetry |
Taking it Personally
I never took their words personally
knowing they meant nothing
which could not be absorbed or shrugged aside
as here say or typographical heresy
All that “Write what you know” stuff
seemed only common sense
for how can anyone ever create a single line
from anything other than personal experience?
& yet, here’s the rub ~ only the words themselves
mean anything to me
not the perfect bliss they once described
syllabic buzz-blur of a muzzy “I’m yours”
trapped in transit by a lingering kiss
or the girl who left or the love which vanished
like a soft breath in a zephyr-brisk breeze
I cannot carry such conundrums inside my skull
only the words necessary to communicate
some clever measure of pithy wit
never enough to convey the ream-weight burden
of narrative interludes disturbed with attitudes
which perturbate the air of memory
& bring remorse to that inner discourse of mind
Otherwise, I might write that which I never meant to say
& someone else might take those words
personally ~ making mockery of the times of my life
finding in them things which mattered
far more to them than they ever did to me
by G. Warlock Vance
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This poem certainly speaks to those of us who wonder when putting pen to paper just what the reader is reading....is it our actual words and feelings or is it somehow turned about and made their experience? Then again....perhaps that's what makes our pennings meaningful in the first place - the ability to touch people in a way that they really RELATE to our words. Whatever - I like this poem a great deal.
