Literate shadow

[Sasha]

[space][/space]

• Hiding behind a shadow
  born with a second, dying with the next-
  Tell, how many times a woman,
  can bear the thought of inhaling birth’s scent,
  exhaling death’s, a day?
  
  Standing in front of marginal oceans;
  salty whispers wounding orbs of dark brown
  yet, eyes will blink nevermore.
  Tidal pull plays with hair colour
  suffocating. webbing . facing the face -
  (thought strands' necks
  were ringed in a messy bun!)
  Though, at some sickened seconds
  am dead as a bone,
  pathetic as lame laugh,
  stubborn as a smile of a lover.
  do appreciate this
  I don’t want either your sympathy or praise-
  but I do try to teach my shadow some manners
  some of my pride’s etiquette.
  “You disgust me;
  your crawling over moonlit alleys
  like a lost b-----.
  pick yourself and stand up,
  and let’s trade skins;
  more likely to be, skin above skin –
  
  I (will) only walk avenues”.

[Mr D]

awesome darkness trump, Sash !
the first stanza really made a great job at capturing my attention, which was not lost til the end...
be wary of the shadows, ma' dear !

[AliMariesDad]

She's back!!!! Yay!!! Let's throw a party!
And as ever, her poetry is sublime, and filled with such spectacular lines as 'stubborn as a smile of a lover.'

[dornicks]

A picture painted in depth and darkness capable of raising an eyebrow or two.Thank you for sharing this,

dornicks

[everhopeful]

There seems to be a deeply twisted character at work within this poem, but I was struck by the suggestion there were at least two personas involved here, as though the shadow being cast wasn't as bad as the element that was actually casting the shadow!
I was really drawn to the idea expressed in the opening stanza of a woman inhaling birth and exhaling death, that's quite a description to set the ball rolling with, and was as much of a jolt as the speech in the conclusion which was angry, vicious and filled with contempt.
A multi-layered darkness piece which made an impact on me!

[YoursTrulyZsa]

A wonderfully dark piece Sash...you played it nicely throughout and it flowed wonderfully! Great job and thank you for sharing!

Zsa

[ladylilith]

There is something exciting about the use of language and structure in this piece that makes me itch to write something myself. A brightly dark and stirring piece too (yep, we're going there with oxymoronic phrases, because I can) and I was struck by the way this feels to me, on a personal level, to deconstruct the very gender and meaning and state of being all that is 'female'. And then you let it unfurl into something more extended in meaning. Taking on a more lexical form that I think you tackle with such finesse. A dark, dark, dark, dark write. I felt like my brain was being led down a disturbing kind of path, but then, I have twisted imagination, so I only have myself to blame.

This gave me shivers.

I will definitely come back to read this again.

Lily^^

[VeiledPrincess]

I really like you on this board Sasha.
The way you explore and picture darkness
is capitivating, exciting .....OOOooo.

Vp.

[Mizuchi]

Your choice of imagery is gory but bizzarely beautiful. It kind of distracted me from the content of the poem, as if it was shielding my mind from something even darker. That takes guts to write. Kudos!

[PoeTAndrEw]

Hm I must say I'm not sure what exactly to make of this poem and it's true meaning the author tried to convey. To put simply I am still a novice at interpreting meanings of poems from "other authors" when I write poetry all the time . Oh the irony!

[LoveratHeart]

This was a very dark piece and great imagery you gave. I enjoyed reading this very much.

Thank you for sharing hun keep writing.

[Mr Goth]

I am a sucker for twisted tales and this one is topping into my favorites very thoughtful and dearly lovely.
massively inspired by the jet language use. This was very edible if you can eat shadows

Best wishes

Mr. Goth

[RiverRose]

Darkness has never really been my thing, but I enjoy reading you no matter what it is. The most striking thing about this, for me, is the way the shadow comes across. I don't know quite how to explain it, but those last ten lines were my favorite.
Eesh..I'm really bad at reviewing dark things.
But I can also say...
Congrats on the Spotlight!

[tangerinepie]

Sasha..what an entertaining darkness piece..it felt kind of split personality to me.The shadow seemed like a hidden nemesis coming out to divert the writer to an uglier and enraged side.Expert use of imagery and I was very taken by the theme..Amazing spotlight choice..Tangie..

[dwells]

We create and pin our hopes to the daily dying; yet we return again to the same birthing process, undeterred and dedicated to our pride's etiquette; secure in the knowledge of our inevitable verbal excellence. You've struck a nerve with this one Sash and perhaps "the shadow knows", cheers and congrats!

[everhopeful]

Extending from my comment from just over a year ago now (hasn't time flown?!), I am still struck by the idea of two personas at work here, although now I sense they both come from the same person. I definitely feel like the shadow caster has incredible intensity in her speech, yet the driving force perhaps comes from frustration and anger at the meek side of her shadow?
A very intriguing work Sash, congratulations on the spotlight!

[J.P. Niemeyer]

I got the impression of the darkness caused by a stillborn child --- a woman's painful act of birthing life, only to have it die a second later --- shadow indeed.