Poems to the Wounded

[Karla]

1#
I am pregnant with different people.
If you look close to my skin,
you can see men and women
in my pores.
Their eyes have seen things
I can't name.
Their ears have listened to the music
of the oceans.
They are in me and I condemned them
to be my voice.



2#
Deep inside of me, there is a book
I read night after night hidden
in my bedroom when the stars
were my sisters. That book was my love
and my lover. I used to hug it but
not before making love to each letter,
each word, each page.
I stole it from a library when
books were whims of the insane.
That book grew into me like a tree
in a time of discovery and despair.
Whenever I look back I am more aware
that I didn't steal that book.
It was the book that stole my soul.



3#
I spent eighty-four months of my life,
only studying the History of my own country.
( it was as if everybody was in exile:
from Plato up to Roosevelt)
but it was us that were in exile.
I stared at my History teachers with disdain
as I repeated the same dusty names and dates
shaking my legs nervously, enumerating space.
Sometimes I thought their tongues were cut off
long before they could teach us how to think.
Then, little by little I started to pity them:
they were half winged scared beings.
I could see their hearts dying under a defibrillator
as they rehearsed the same old scripts.
When I left high school, I was free to love History
and contemplate it without my prayers and curses.
But now that I am old, I understand my teachers:
They are the proof of dictatorship's obscenity.


Karla B

[ladylilith]

I love the power of these. The first one struck me the most, I found the imagery of it, the possibility when imagined, was something so compelling and slightly unsettling too. But there is so much to savour in each one of these I felt. And the final revelation in #3 was a doozy.. I really enjoyed the perspective of that one, partly because it matched some of my own exasperation at studying History for *counts* seven years of my education and we revisited the same era or theme over and over..

Anyhow, really great poetry here. I enjoyed exploring these very very much.

Lily^^

[everhopeful]

Welcome back to TPS Karla, it's nice to see you again!
This is such an emotive read, I think the even tone and temper of the speaker in the face of so much oppression makes me warm to their strength of character. The metaphors you've used in this are brilliant throughout, they do so much to convey the emotion of the poem as a whole, and tell a story, firstly of the speaker's connection to her kin, then to words, then to the discovery and embrace of freedom.
This is an excellent piece, so well written.

[Chelle]

wow alot going on here and certainly proving you are back with a bang! Let me say that it is easy to see that each of these sentences are handcrafted and i love that. The second piece where you describe that book...made me want to go curl up with one.

[Namyh]

Karla - This was deep on many levels and I enjoyed the thoughts provoked. It's ironic that often it's not that we don't know something but more often that we don't know that we don't know and therefore won't miss it. That's heavy even for me. I enjoyed your work here Karla. Namyh

[tangerinepie]

A trilogy that certainly was crafted with flair and great thought.A readers delight in every way and I enjoyed it immensely..Tangie..

[inflames]

All I can say is... Wow. This deserves so many more comments than it has. It is a beautiful, deep and thought-provoking piece. The beginning stanza is so engaging. I really love the meaning behind this piece- the idea that a person is a community, a person belongs and is so much more than just "their self". I love what you are expressing in this piece. What a wonderful spotlight! A great choice. Congrats!

[rupertpupkin]

Brilliant work and a very deserved spotlight, well done!

[dornicks]

I liked the way these climaxed into the final poem and was particularly pleased at your observations in this. My kind of stuff. Congratulations on the Spotlight,

dornicks

[everhopeful]

This one gets even better with a re-read, like inflames I am drawn to the opening stanza, you begin with such a brilliant metaphor that I was instantly gripped, and the rest of the poem didn't let me go!
You mix so much passion with poetic control that it feels like an experience to simply read your words.
Congratulations on the spotlight!

[Sasha]

I was mesmerised by this; and I second the comments about the first stanza; it has a gripping appeal to its brilliant composition, like choking voices inside the speaker where her own voice might be too low comparing to theirs, but it seems like a helpless case, and the next stanza; I really can relate to it, where a book totally traps me within its lines and locks me there lonely with its words...
The third one held a critique that was beautifully worded, History- story re-read over again, and I just love the ending lines.
You seem to take your reader on journey of different engaging topics, some took a personal angle and sometimes a general one, and in both cases, eloquence was there at every turn of thoughts.
Remarkable piece of poetry, and congratulations on the Spotlight!

Sash

[Larsen M. Callirhoe]

You mesmerized me as well with your outstandingly woven lines. The chemistry of how you tie everything together is uniquely your own style and is perfectly chosen words that makes for a truly worth while poem to take in and enjoy reading. One of the best poems I have read in quite a while. Definitely deserves the spotlight so congrats dear. Thank you for sharing. By the way I really enjoyed the opening and closing metaphors. Divulging in this read was truly a treat for the mind.

victor

[Eggy]

Excellent work, both evocative and intriguing. This deserves a wider audience than is possible here.

Publish!

[allmirth]

This is such rich and deep writing. Wonderfully crafted. Taken together it seems to say, we are our history, yet, we are not. Though this a paradox it feels no less true. Congratulations on a well-deserved Spotlight!

Thanks so much for sharing.
Mirthy

[jim_moonan]

Forgive me. I am always racing through TPS... I've never noticed the TPS spotlighted poems... what a treat! This piece of yours has such personal, intimate strength. So powerful it slowed me down so that I could see without a blur. Beautiful.

[flux]

This grows in power with each stanza, your feelings and your convictions gaining strength with each line. I got a real sense of being you and having these experiences. What I admire most of all is the fair way you dealt with these experiences, you wrote with humility and wisdom and with compassion. This is worthy of a spotlight.

[jim_moonan]

I'm fascinated with this poem.
There is something maddening, almost lunatic about it, especially #1 and #2.

#1
"They are in me and I condemned them
to be my voice."
Interesting choice of words. Beautiful, surreal imagery at work.


#3
You chose to represent wasted time in months. I think, (though not sure) that "7 years" might say more than "eighty-four months".

"Sometimes I thought their tongues were cut off
long before they could teach us how to think."

Wild, wild vision, tongueless teachers.


This is where the poem turns for me:

"Then, little by little I started to pity them:
they were half winged scared beings."

It reminds me a bit of Mary Oliver's "The Journey" in it's sense of resolve.

It is a magnificent turning and I like the lines that follow... until the last two lines:

"But now that I am old, I understand my teachers:
They are the proof of dictatorship's obscenity."

I ask in ernest - is this the way you want this to end? I ask the wild poet of #1 and #2 and most of #3 - is this what you meant to say?

All of these comments are a reflection of how much I admire this piece. Its a diamond. The question in my mind is, could this diamond become even more beautiful with more cutting?