Obsessing About What Others Think
Does it matter what others might think?
Pride cripples; it can cause one to lose friends; it creates anxiety and depression. Some people, so intent on impressing others, begin worrying about every little thing. They are concerned about their appearance and the quality of their work. They are obsessed with creating perfection, being the best, the richest, the smartest; all of which are good goals, except when done for wrong reasons.
Her Life Is A Flower For Worship is a poem about just such a person, a widow who is over concerned about what other think of her life.
The Wake of a Forgotten Queen
Her Life Is A Flower For Worship
Always preparing for unexpected visitors
the coffin-eyed widow seldom leaves home.
Proud of her life she cleans with obsession.
She shuns superstition but is a plagued
with a notion that sleep
is rehearsal for death.
During the day she fluffs pillows
and sprinkles her bedding with roses.
At night she is still as King Tut
stretched stiff in unwrinkled sheets.
In her dream there are long lines
of mourners, each startled to see
she leaves no dust behind.
About How I Write
Once I have an idea for a poem I sit down and bang it out. It is usually very rough and filled up with common terms and expressions. What happens next is I go back and start replacing common phrases with more obscure details, images that are more engaging and catch the reader off guard. I want images that draw them into the story. The reader is bored if they have heard it before, so if I write a poem about love I will probably never use the word love, but would focus on the actions of love, how she ironed the collars of his shirts, how he always stopped to look back at the end of the driveway. My goal in writing is to never leave the reader feeling I have wasted their time.
Thank you for reading my work.
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The dust made me laugh :)
Glad to make you smile.
A worthy goal, and one I would suggest you have been successful in. I particularly like your use of language, the way it asks you to consider things more deeply than usual.
Thanks @naquoya I especially like poetry that leaves the reader with a bit of a mystery, poems where the reader might have a different interpretation than the author.
I think those sorts make for the best, in my opinion. Something I'm still working on, sometimes well, sometimes not. That element of mystery opens the door for the reader to involve themselves into the writing, asking questions of it, inquiring into it.
The most difficult part of being a writer of poetry is understanding that you have a limited audience, that unless they read poetry all the time they probably won't get it.