Search Query

[stakebait]

I am looking for a poem about kindness for unkind people
By an unkind person, someone who understands that it is neither easy
Nor always desirable, but only sometimes and nevertheless necessary,
The usual lumpy collection of congealed feather pillows and old knives,
Not as sharp as they'd like to be, or as soft either,
Never sure which should be applied, scalpel or shuriken, smother or soothe.


I am looking for a poem which nobody sane would print in a greeting card
Or read at a funeral. I am looking for a poem that says, I don’t pretend to know
where the border is, what we owe to the world, to each other,
to ourselves, to the taste of Scotch and sweat and smoke,
to the things that we believe are beautiful.
But I know it is no longer enough for me
That you are so altogether and entirely satisfied
Not to be good.

Comments

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

I really like this.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

This may be one of the best poems I've read in years.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

*blush* Thank you very much. Unlike fiction, I have no ability to tell whether my own poetry is working, so I am extra glad to hear that.

[siderea]

That is deeply fabulous.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Danke!

[mpoetess.livejournal.com]

Both bitter and lovely.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Thank you! This one started as a literal Google search, but I couldn't find the precise flavor of bitter I wanted, and realized I would have to make my own.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

To speak so profoundly of the world and yourself* in so short a space...marvelous!

*I presume. About the voice's POV, in any case.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And yes, it is me this time.

[batyatoon]

*breathes out*

That punchline. Oh.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

I struggled over that, because in some ways it sort of is what it critiques, you know? It's not kind. But it is the point. And the whole poem is about that, that I never know if I'm right but I know I need not to stop struggling.

[batyatoon]

The sense I was getting is that the poem critiques a -- I hate to use the word, but an unexamined unkindness? As opposed to a conscious and careful unkindness. If that makes sense.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

This is true. I just have to take care that "my own unkindness is okay because it is examined" doesn't become its own excuse for not examining it. If that makes any sense.

[batyatoon]

Ah heh. Yes, there is that.

[genarti]

Oh, this is powerful.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Thank you.