Letter To a Young Poet
Nov 27th, 2009 | By phoenixpoet | Category: Poetry | 354 viewsPoet,
Don’t take this the wrong way,
but I’ve walked in your shoes
have hid my shadow in dim doorways as if syllables suspended in second hand smoke
might hold the key to unlocking freedoms
I could never find within the confines of my own body;
I thought that poetry was life.
But, truth be told,
breath is just breath
and some of us are barely hanging on with iron lungs,
so don’t sell your soul until you fully know what this life holds for you.
I can see the untapped potential in your eyes
can trace the roads less traveled by knives along wrists
since fingers learned to make love to pens.
I sift strength from your steps
Find serenity in your quaking breaths
Solar eclipses still echo in the sound of your laughter
Deep inside of your body, though,
you’re still a child,
and I’m honestly afraid you’ve exchanged that curiosity
for lies pitched at the velocity of truth.
That’s not to say I don’t believe in you-
I just know that our biggest fear is not that we are inadequate
but that we possess potential beyond measure
and you’ve underestimated the measuring tape paces of your electricity.
If you could see the skeletons in my closet,
you’d long to puzzle their bodies back together,
to replace heads onto necks still searching for spines
replicating their structures from the sands of time
and watch them fall apart at the seams.
There are things I can never tell you,
never bleed onto the page,
but I can disguise it in poetic irony
(like the juxtaposition of love poems with secret suicide notes).
We never consciously chose this fate,
immortal even as hourglass telomeres tear us into our demise.
Don’t envy us,
for we are keepers of sights left unseen
& as long as everything is everything,
we will be forced to hold infinity
within our images of grace,
so don’t mistake fragility for fear,
because every time we are up here
we bear the weight of the world
on bicycles built
for one,
riding out these syllables
like 2012 prophecies,
simultaneously fearing that
we’ve lived in lifetimes
ahead and before
and are just trapped
in a sandcastle
of pipe dreams
waiting for the ocean
to remind us
that we
are
Nothing.
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About phoenixpoet: I’m a loveable eloquent klutz whose words might just clear your mind’s dementia long enough for you to recognize truth again when you see it in the mirror & remember what love looks like, even scribbled in imaginary markers on the heart of your best friend. They might inspire you to run away with a stranger you kissed in the street. Or, you might even be inspired to pick up a pen & write. Either way, it should be pretty amazing. Phoenix, a.k.a. Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory, a performance poet based out of Jersey City, NJ, is the founding member of Spitting Images, the first-ever New Jersey City University poetry slam team. She was also a semifinalist at the 2009 Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam along as part of 2009 N.J. Youth S.L.A.M., where she was also chosen to be a member of the 2009 Brave New Voices Green Team to write on the topics of the global environmental issues and climate change. For more information, visit http://phoenixpoet.info. |
©2009 phoenixpoet All Rights Reserved
This is Exactly what I would tell All Young Poets, Writing, Performing, and Using Poetry/Art as a Mere Hobby. “We bear the weight of the world on bicycles built for one… waiting for the ocean to remind us that we are Nothing.” Well Said, Phoenix Poet!!! This is The Thinking that The Sweet Epiphany Cultivates in Beautiful Minds, such as Yourself! Thank You for This Poem!