SPU Poetry Contest #3: Half-Hearted
This week's SPU Poetry Contest (https://steemit.com/contest/@poetsunit/spu-poetry-contest-3-announcement-winners-of-2) challenged us to write a poem using a quote from another poem as inspiration. My poem, "Half-Hearted", is about trying to live without love for fear of being hurt. Here is the quote I chose to use for inspiration:
"My throat, a dam
Passing droplets while gushing waters attempt to overflow
My tongue, a straightjacket
Twisting arms and disorienting limbs
Struggling
Strangling
Suppressing
taken from The Process of Writing a Love Letter by @itinerantartist, who won the first contest."
Half-Hearted
Two chambers
Sucking air
Spurting blood
Here and there
'Til the body's
Bloodless, dry
No spit to swallow
Tears to cry
Now pumping nothing
On automatic
As if this thing
Were run by magic
Butterfly wings
Ripped but trying
Still to find
A way of flying
Headless snakes strike
Just the same
Centipede legs
Dance away
Wait: the elephant
In the room will die
For want of a single
Pair of eyes
Blue ribbon
Obliviousness
This mass of tubes
Sticking out of the chest
This question echoing
Without answer
Solitary
Ballroom dancer
Keeping time
For an endless hour
Dying to live
A fish out of water
For want of an ocean
In which to swim
My better half:
A phantom limb.
©2018 Bennett Italia, All Rights Reserved
makes my heart happy to know my excerpt and poem inspired another :) great job and good luck!
Thank you! And thank you for the amazing source material :)
Very cool write, Bennett:)
Thank you Pryde :)
And there you have it :) . A metaphor to chew on.
Hmm... glad you liked that part @fego, it was one of my favorite stanzas. So many different aspects of the same concept in this poem, this may well encapsulate it best. Thanks for stopping by my friend!
Tire Una Pagina Llena De Nuestra Memoria Prometo De Nuevo
Que Hoy Voy Ah Borrarte Pero No Puedo Esto Es Como Un
Habito No Puedo Vivir No Puedo Vivir Mi Corazon Esta Lleno
De Este Amor Ya Que Hay Recuerdos Que Quedan En
Lugares Melancolicos Estoy Buscando De Nuevo Tu,Tu Dolor
That is beautiful @queto50, even though my Spanish is not so good... I'm looking forward to reading more of your work!
Very interesting of your talent. Looking for the upcoming post.
Thanks @nurseloriel, I'm glad you liked it :)
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I'm competing with you on the same prompt, but I must say, what a line:
Thank you @pragmaticpassion! Just read your entry, beautiful work :) The all-too-familiar experience of confusion, mixed messages, and conflicted emotions in personal relationships, deftly and powerfully sketched. I love your minimalist style: each phrase says just enough to convey everything about everything that matters.
You and your animals! There is a beauty to the abstract yet concrete feel to this poem. I did have to reread it again once I read the last line. Profound! This was a lovely write :D
Thank you my friend! I could see having to go back and read it again... this is one of my more cryptic pieces, until the last two lines reveal all.