lishmcbride
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Poem! (I'm sorry) and a Question
🕑 Added 2020-04-07 20:26:49 +0000 UTCFirst, a question! Yesterday I recorded me reading a short story from the collection Curses--a story that I wrote a long time ago. It's...long. Like, 40 mins, and almost all of that is me reading. My short stories tend to be long, which is great if you're reading, but not so much when you're listening maybe? Especially since I'm not a spectacular reader or anything (I goof a few times) and the story is older so there are so many things I wouldn't do now...anyway, I wasn't sure if I should actually post it or not. Would a lengthy reading post be something any of you would want? (You won't hurt my feelings if you're like, "No, Lish. Who can listen that long?") Anyway, sound of in the comments if that's a thing you want and I'll post it later. Or not.
Second thing, the poem!
So, I'm not a poet. I took a lot of writing classes in college and graduate school and though I studied the work of many poets and respect some of them deeply...it has never been a thing that I'm particularly comfortable with writing myself. I took any other writing workshop I could besides poetry. Nonfiction, screenwriting, fiction, but not poetry. Part of it is there is an exacting nature to a poem. Every word, space, piece of punctuation--every little thing is considered. I've heard poets debate the placement of one comma for over an hour. I...can't do that. I love to see them play with space and form and all of it, but my brain is too messy and fiction is more forgiving.
That being said, I am a big fan of working outside my comfort zone. So after I posted that link last week (here) of my friend Abby's poetry workshop (and after Abby badgered me to just do it already) I wrote a poem. It's...not terrible. Good writing comes from rewriting and editing and I have no idea how to edit a poem. But I thought I'd post it because it was fun to do and because it might encourage some of you to try something new. So for what it's worth, here is my poem. The writing prompt was, "My Heart is a Small-town Midwife."
My heart is a small-town midwife.
It wears sensible shoes, with arch support
Long hours spent on your feet
teaches you the importance of good shoes.
My heart owns a good time piece,
not digital, but something that ticks.
Something you can really count on.
It doesn’t trust the silent blink of technology.
My heart sees your birth plan for what it is—
An attempt to control the chaos,
The clash, the fury and the sound,
That is your life changing. Forever.
In ways you can’t fathom or comprehend,
No matter how many books you read.
No matter how many classes you take.
Some things don’t respond to your need for order.
My heart will play your fucking whale song
even though it knows it won’t help.
Your body will do what it needs to do
It knows the inexorable rhythm of life
And will resent you bringing the whales into it
Like backseat drivers that didn’t ask for the ride,
But now that they’re here, they will share their wisdom, by god.
In the city, they like all this polish.
The future sketched in chrome and glass
Slick and shiny and efficient.
The antithesis of life.
They don’t get the irony, despite their sophistication.
In small towns, you know. Life is a mess.
Creation is getting by on little sleep,
And accepting what the darkness has to tell you.
The small-town midwife knows the lies—
birth is beautiful, a miracle
and maybe it is, but it’s not a pretty one.
There are no butterflies, no sunlit glades
No thrice-damned whale song.
You are grit teeth, beaded sweat,
A mosaic of determination.
Blood and tears and my hand on yours.
It is a miracle paid for with salt.
My heart is a small-town midwife
And she is tired.
She is full and heavy with the lies she must keep
So that you may sleep in comfort.
But her face is tilted to the sun,
Her sensible shoes make crisp sounds on the pavement
Keeping time with a steady promise.
Hope you enjoyed it! Back to working on my Lena story!
-Lish
Comments
Very nice. Thank you for sharing your poem <3
