for tony
64for tony
I don't know your life
I don't know any of your lives
I catch a moment here or there
in one of your poems and I'm transported
unexpectedly to buried yesterdays
sneaking down the hall in the dark
to sit with my baby brother
his big eyes peeking out over the covers
while we listen to them screaming
at each other through the closed door
until they stopped hours later
and years after, leaving the house
maybe a month before they put
everything I ever owned in the trash
how he ran to me even after
they told him not to
to hug me good-bye, crying
and he grew up, moved on and became you
normal job, normal home, normal life
he doesn't cry over losing me anymore
and I carried them with me, inside me
wandering in and out of the mental hospitals
and the streets and the smoke-filled clubs
sitting on the curbs on the worst sides of towns
nodding in the only peace I could find
nodding in agreement with their definition
of me, endlessly repeated...
I don't know your life
I don't know any of your lives
Image Credit
I found this image among docufotos1's photos: here
Great urban images. Take a look.
PrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
Comments
thank you, v. it was a historie too, call it flashbacks. my life is much happier now, so there is that too.
I don't know tony well, but he's an interesting online acquaintance and I love his poetry which I ran across randomly. For some reason, his pieces resonated in me and brought back a lot of past, clearly the mark of an effective poet. I have him showcased in my 'other's poetry' section.
V, that's really amazing. thank you for linking me.
Yes, powerful, Iðunn. Thanks for sharing your flashbacks in vivid form. A slice of personal history.
thx for stopping in~
Lounn You can right such powerful poetry.I need to come back again and again to learn from you.The image is just perfect.Great way of expression,moved my heart.
I certainly agree with all the comments above, this is truly powerful, and the pic is great too. Very good IAunn.
Dear One: There is something about you that makes me want to know your lives and this poem made that achingly more acute. I don't know anyone who can tell a story in poems the way you do.
Abhinaya, thank you very much but I truly hope everyone finds their own voice and style and uses thier own experiences. :)
W, sometimes I feel like bukowski minus the talent and the later success. I don't know if that is good or bad. :p
guru-c, I'm of the opinion that people who can imagine and create other worlds or lives are the creative ones.
I can only write what I know. I'm not jealous of their creativity, indeed I respect it. I try to surround myself with those smarter, kinder, happier and more creative than myself so I can improve myself. It might not help, but it can't hurt. :o
It's kind of neat and very kind that you guys like my little prose and take the time to read it. Thx.
I'm not a huge fan of cyclical endings in general. But I think it works well here, it gave me the feeling of a desparate melancholy, it wasn't a "cheap way out" as it usually is. It was used in a very "thought-like" way. You could say it was part of the description, "fitting the picture too".
Anyhow I'm no authority on poetry (never tried any myself, don't have the "coglioni").
But the descriptions were stark and beautiful. The message vibrant and the writing powerful.
More!
Thoog.
I'm not jealous of their creativity, indeed I respect it. I try to surround myself with those smarter, kinder, happier and more creative than myself so I can improve myself. It might not help, but it can't hurt. :o
I believe your paragraph above describes you to a T
Magic hub.
Thank you
thank you, MrM.
I'm glad you see that. I've had some exposure to a woman who chronically stalks me and assume any respect or kindness on my part to others is manipulation because she projects what she knows - herself - onto me wrongly. Perhaps this explains her lack of happiness with her own life and is the reason she wishes to "have" mine by 'becoming' a catholic poet who is in love with the guy I love and wants to write about it using what she thinks is 'my' style. bizarre and kind of creepy.
this same woman also assumes my life is perfect. omg let me quote it: "Pretty girls get first pick at everything dont give that. They're greedy and stupid."
because her and her friendo assume that everything is about the superficial and that if they were just attractive, life would suddenly be perfect for them, and they blame the other people for the crime of being 'attractive, they never work on fixing themselves.
wrapped into that quoted line you see from an old post made at me is the reason their lives are unhappy. they don't get it that nobody's life is perfect or easy, they can't empathize with others and assume that others have no feelings and then act on that and that's why no one likes them - it's nothing to do with they way they or anyone else looks.
The people that assume that beauty will open doors is sadly mistaken.
Men want a women that has a heart and depth.
Beauty can fade but true inner depth of your inner beauty stays.
It is too bad that all they focus on the outer person and not on the true inner beauty we all started out with.
exactly. thx for reading and commenting and I agree 100%.
It has taken me awhiles to respond to this poem. I have read it a few times and just could not write an answer. In so many ways, it took me down old walkways, places I thought I had hidden well behind a wall of blackberry bushes. But such walls are just not enough. Strangely, because I hear you too have these old walkways, I feel as if I don't need those bushes there anymore. Old walkways will never dissolve, but at least there can be a friendly candle to light the way now.
Thank you so much for an absolutely exquisite voice!
Smiles and Light
aura. do what you need to do for you for as long as you need to do it. trust yourself. and... you're not alone. there are many of us and even not knowing about each other, draw strength that we are all survivors and we do something for each other just by our own independent and unique survival. you have had my support in some unexplainable aura, if you will, even before I became aware of your existence.
frozen sparrows are survivors. they are not victims. I am sorry if my memories inadvertently upset you and if you decide later you have shared too much, let me know and I will remove the comment at your request and my follow up to it.
trust yourself, always.
dear lounn - leave all as is. The journey is good. Not upsetting at all, once I faced what had to be faced. This is a very beautiful hub. Every part of it. Let others enjoy the beauty.
Smiles and Light
P.S. I too seemed to know you before I knew you.
|
Psychology
Price: $89.00
|
|
Psychology for Dummies
Price: $9.45
List Price: $19.99 |
|
The Everything Psychology Book: Explore the Human Psyche and Understand Why We Do the Things We Do (The Everything Series)
Price: $3.96
List Price: $15.95 |
|
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Psychology, 3rd Edition
Price: $18.93
List Price: $19.95 |
Veronica says:
2 years ago
This is so powerful. The imagery is intense. Carrying them with you. The mental hospitals. The many lives.
I don't know if this is fiction or autobiographical, but it feels tangiable. Like it's right there. Like it was.
And I believe you.
You make me want to share back, when you share so much. If this is inappropriate please delete this comment. But I wanted to show you,
I have a Tony, too.
http://everythingisused.blogspot.com/2007/11/4-del
I really love this poem. Thanks for sharing it.