How can I be a balloon and not notice?
How is it possible to absorb another’s breath
so
thoroughly.
And why, when the leaking starts,
does it scratch
and weep?
There is a monster in my thoracic cage.
I slide through the window
To play his baby
Grand.
Yes, I’ve had lessons, practise daily.
The melody is sweet
with the undercurrent of
lost
It’s nice to play hopscotch in the rain
But
the impermanence is exacting
Sadly I inevitably deflate,
giving release, spilling out, falling away.
The monster escapes
stealing the bones from my fingers and feet.
So how am I to know where I end and another begins?
Do I really want the things I want
or am I grasping at straw
trying to plug my ever-leak?
That’s it, I’m off!
I have made a balloon out of my hot air,
and beyond
the clouds,
you may catch a glimpse
Silver Poetry 
Primitive digestible, sort of lighting with it’s wig waxed ears. Infinity breathing can be hard even for a little balloon. This was quite spectacular.
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thankyou, because it CAN be hard, even for a thing made to hold it’s breath…..
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This is very unusual. You enter mental territory which seems on the surface to be very fantastic but actually suddenly when I am there feels deply familiar and reassuring. Im not sure why! I am particularly at home with ‘the undercurrent of
lost’ and this will only be appreciated I suspect by those who know within themselves what this means through experience of the underside. Yes. Mari is right!
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Mari has delightful capacity for hitting the nail on it’s head. Thankyou for your words….it is the same yearning and evolving that happens deep within us all I think…some may notice and some may not or not want to….
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But the true and skilled poet of the spirit can go to those places and provide a vehicle to reach them and view them and start to understand them through the beauty of picture and the sound and rhythm of the words!
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yes, and it feels so good that we do find the sweet spot, we can’t help but go there again and again, to try at the very least!!
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Very creative ! Loved its feel, the ‘catch me if you can’ drive. Thanks friend ~Deborah
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You are so very welcome, I love the way you see it!
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Yes! At the very least – but actually the intention – and then the atempt – are themselves integral in welcoming the poem into being! Blessings! John
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very interesting poem.
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thanks!
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I sure love the surprise of “I slide through the window / To play his baby / Grand.” AND the painting.
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thankyou, that is a tiny painting actually, one of many from a series I did about ‘what would fall out, if the heart were a pocket and we were each turned upside down’ hehe
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Amazing! This question–its wording, its metaphor–is so striking to me. Today, it inspired me to write a poem in response to it. I’ll post the poem on my blog with links to your sites. Thank you so much for the creative nourishment!
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wonderful, I can’t wait to see it!
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Amazing Jennifer absolutely sweetly achingly amazing.
I was inspired TOO, see My Heart Pocket… xxx
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Drawing in your breath
Do I take it or receive
With elastic skin.
Great poem. Inspirational. I really like your poetic voice – things like “ever-leak.”
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Thankyou, it never ceases to amaze me the way the mind can play with words, they are funny little toys!
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The best of toys, indeed.
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I love the mystical and mythological aspects of this poem and a range of questions came to mind: The narrator is intimate enough of to play the child of the monster, but the monster is in the thoracic cage, so the narrator goes into herself to play?
The monster in the thoracic cage reminds me of the movie “Aliens” with the monsters coming out of people’s thoracic cage.
The other rhetorical question is why the monster stealing the bones from your fingers and feet? and by stealing do you mean that the narrator is holding some bones that the monster steals or it’s the narrator’s bones that are stolen? Either it’s spooky.
my favorite lines: So how am I to know where I end and another begins?/Do I really want the things I want
I always ask myself if I want the things that I want.
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excellent questions and THANKYOU for taking the time.
the monster is the the internal demon of desire, the aspect of self that is frustrated with wanting to own and control that which is not theirs to do so…in a way the monster is the part of us that tantrums for the unattainable…to conquer another’s mind. It beats and thrashes in the chest alongside or within its counterpart , the heart.
It is as though I can quell the monster only temporarily, and when it seems like it has escaped it hasn’t as it has rendered me unable to play the piano of happiness or run away by stealing my bones and turning me into helpless jelly….
In reality this poem is about me surrendering to something that goes beyond my idea of love and relationships…allowing myself the freedom to be nothingness……
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Thanks for replying, I knew there was more to it than what I was reading into it.
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thats my pleasure! so many ways to read one set of words !
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Gosh I really love your poetry. I love it because it makes sense … LOL! So many poems you read (mine included – except when I read it because I wrote it so I understand it … yada yada yada) … you have to chew on it for hours to get the message. Sometimes it really cool to do that, but sometimes you just want to understand. I understand your poetry and I like that. I don’t know if any of that makes sense, but it’s all good. 😀
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It makes sense! haha i was just saying to my guy Ross that i am not sure that even i understand some of what i write until later when i read it back over a couple of times! But when i do it becomes clear to me that we can trust the ‘channeling’ that happens with poetry, it has it’s own intention and it seems to shine through.
sometimes there are a number of messages and interpretations too, don’t you think? so lots of people can benefit if they want to!
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Absolutely and I definitely think we just click with certain writers. I definitely click with yours. Either way, I absolutely love your poetry. If you ever put a book together, let me know. I would purchase it in a heartbeat. 😀
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thankyou, that is encouraging! I am compiling the poetry these days so that is a start. I have so many ideas for projects….letting some words spill out of me probably saves me from too much mind noise! xx
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The first half of this poem really grabbed me by surprise. I especially love the title!
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