The more I write, the more I realize, as long as we write from deep within our hearts, people will feel it and resonate somehow. With so much encouragement from the last post, and readers / followers on Twitter & emails urging me alike, I’ve managed to patch up some courage to publish a poem I scribbled down a few days ago.
Poetry, for me, is a language of romance – not solely romantic love, but a flourishing expression of little things in our everyday life with random words strung together into a mellifluous sound. Poetry can express so much joy and heartache, the pains and the triumphs, the contentment and frustrations. It seem to me though, that many poets are quite lonely, and their words interweaved so passionately into imageries and dreams, are but soliloquys. My poems dating back from age 10 were the same.
I had always thought I was an extrovert, with friends endless surrounding me. It is with this challenge of depression that I finally realize, I’m actually happier on my own, and that I don’t need a bundle of friends if I might have one or two soulmates in my life. Society’s image of being popular and outgoing caught the better of me, and my effervescent personality bubbled through. However, I need to also accept and learn to embrace the loner in me, for there is nothing wrong with that side of me either. It is maybe, the more creative side of me that I had never explored, and even suppressed.
So here, to carry on the poetic journey after my little rhyme, is the second poem I’ve written this year – almost 10 years since my last one. But I’m glad my poetry notebook has not forsaken me…
Again, I didn’t delve into any rhythmical rules, or stanza formats. I just wrote, and found some rhyme here and there when I could. I wrote this within the space of 10 minutes on the back of a newspaper on Monday night, and edited it a little bit on Tuesday.
Perhaps if you have the patience to read it, you could let me know in the comments, how you felt after reading this little poem? I’m interested to know what emotions can be drawn out from readers, and what metaphors you would interpret into the scene I depicted below. Not a literature class, just your thoughts.
Insomnia: Encounter with a Fox
Sleep has left me for dreams
On the forty-third floor
I lie mindless in a white sea
From a distance, a twinkle at the door
Dark brown eyes stare into my heart’s solace
A fox, sighs in the wind
He catches taste of my weeping
Silent tears in the willow trims
Blocked by stony rifts between
Many songs we could have sung
Regardless of days and night in time or space
With merry dances we might flung
The fox looked me again
Beckoning
I stared back through the rain
Pondering
The twinkles tempt me to follow
I entice him to my burrow
Before each other we stand
Daring not to move a single strand
His eyes as brown as ever
My lips slightly quiver
The ties to humans are set
Lair is where fox will head
I turn my face to bid goodbye
He trots off freely, sound and wise
The gaze bores through my bones
My heart is not unfeeling stones
Through the foggy dented mist
My vain hope he will return is not
For men must toil and live their days
Thus fox must go his separate way
The creek sets us apart
But neither of us will cross the slumber
No, not tonight…
Fox thinkeths not of me, I know
But I, I of him
…When, then, I wonder?
I hope you enjoyed this poem. It took a lot of courage to post it, not only because I don’t think it’s a masterpiece, but also because poems depict my innermost thoughts and emotions, which, to present to the world, make me feel vulnerable.
Yet, if anything I had learnt through depression, it is this: to be vulnerable takes courage.
If we can face ourselves, honestly, blatantly, completely, wholly, we are one step closer to conquering our worst enemy: ourselves, and our fears inside.
Be me. Write for me.
These are just my thoughts and I’d love to hear about your experience and what you think in the comments below. Also, if you liked this blurb please share with your friends and help my blog grow – and don’t forget to let me know how you felt after reading the poem, and/or what imageries you drew from it. Thanks!
Awesome, This does take courage, and it’s a good thing. And I enjoyed reading you.
Hi Shawna
Thanks!!! Glad you liked it. I’m an idiot with the forum board. Still having trouble posting 🙁
Noch Noch
aw and I really want you there… pick a FORUM click on a TOPIC and there is a new topic button, or to reply click on a post and there is an Add Reply Button, it’s there I promise!!!!
i will persevere! give me a few days. i can’t find the “new topic button” or “reply” button even after i logged in. it’s weird. i will keep trying till i find it!
Noch Noch
It is great that you built up the courage and posted your poem. It must have been hard to let loose of your inner most thoughts. I am sorry, but I did not really understand it while reading. I have never been good at understanding poems and I have no clue why. Ever since I was young, it was hard for me to figure out the purpose of poems. I know that they are not supposed to be easily comprehended and are meant to enable a complex level of thinking. Perhaps, it is that I have trouble thinking outside the box.
Hope that makes sense?
If you do not mind me asking, how long did it take you to write that poem?
Anyhow, stay passionate and happy!
God bless,
William Veasley
Hi William
Thanks for your honest thoughts 🙂 It’s ok to not understand it haha. Truth be told, when I studied literature in school,understanding poems were so difficult. The metaphors and what the poet was really trying to say. I thought it was someone trying to be clever and actually they don’t really know what they are talking about hahaha
So i’d say, some poets really have deeper meanings, maybe others don’t actually…? :p
It took me about 10-15 minutes scribbling it all out. Then I took about another half an hour or so playing around with different words, different ordering of the stanzas etc…
What’s your passion on these days and keeps you happy?
🙂
Noch Noch
Hi Noch Noch,
I love reading about your honest and heartfelt sharing of your thoughts and feelings.
It is true. What really matters about anything that we do is that we do it from our hearts. That is all that really matters and our work speaks for itself.
I did try my hand at poetry when I was younger. But I largely used it to express my feelings for girls hahaha! I was never much of a poet. All the rhythmical rules and stanza formats turned me off because I am a perfectionist. If I were to actually write a poem, I would want to read up on all these things and to choose the format that appeals to me most. I have this thing about having favourites in anything I see or like. But in the end, I prefer prose to poetry since it is simpler for me to get my points across clearly.
Hmm from reading your poem I feel vulnerability, possibilities, hope, temptations, restrains, regrets. It may not be a masterpiece, but it was heartfelt and honest. That is what makes it special.
Thank you for sharing this lovely article and poem!
Irving the Vizier
Hi Irving
hahaha what a coincidence! i used to write poems about my feelings for boys when I was a gawky adolescent. I had this book called “writing poems” which I photocopied from a library book because my pocket money did not allow me to buy books. I was working through learning abotu rhythms, rhymes and stanzas etc, and got completely confused with it. Then i would imitate poems and try to copy the number of syllables they had etc…
I find free flow writing much better. I used to think , “well, i’ll invent a different / style of poetry!!” haha. wishful thinking
but anyways, yes, it doesn’t matter so much these days whether it’s masterpiece or not, I just want to express what I feel inside. And yes, you have some of my thoughts / feelings read very well (and I think that has to do with you being very perceptive, somehow even across cyberspace). What you said is a bit how I felt when I was writing 🙂
Thanks for reading it and letting me know what you think. Much appreciated!
Noch Noch
Haha, I really had to make an effort to understand the feelings you were trying to convey. There are probably things I missed or misunderstood. I am much more perceptive in person. 😉
Hi Irving
Haha – perhaps some things you missed, but that doesn’t matter. I think when reading poems, or reading any prose for that matter, we sometimes put our own experiences and state of mind into the interpretation, which I think is part of the beauty of art. It’s that we personalize it and make it for us, and speak to us in ways we feel. The best artists elicit the deepest thoughts from people!
Noch Noch
This is such a beautiful poem Noch Noch. I am so happy you have mustered enough courage to share your poetry again.
I felt so sad reading this poem, like my eyes watered…
I feel like fox is a person, a selfish person who entices you to do that which you don’t want or want am not sure. And he only thinks of himself. I also love the stubborn courage oozing from your words.
These are my favorite lines:
My heart is not unfeeling stones
He catches taste of my weeping
Keep on writing girl, your words are so heartfelt,it’s really touching.
Veeh
Hi Veeh
thanks for encouraging me too and giving me a bit of that courage 🙂
I love how different people catch on to the different aspects of what I’m trying to express. Irving mentioned some emotions I was feeling, and you captured very well the perspective from the fox, or what I was trying to portray of the fox. It’s a temptation to do something I’d want, but know I shouldn’t perhaps. A bit the contradictions in life.
That line “he catches taste of my weeping” – i took FOREVER to come up with. I played around with different wordings, and finally came up with this one just as I was about to publish this post. I’m so happy you like it hahahah!
I will keep writing. thanks for the support. I will come over to read your writing soon
Noch Noch
Hi, Good poem! It’s interesting about the JiaThis button that you have as I run a Chinese human rights website at http://www.freedomforchina100.wordpress.com. I’ll try and find out how to install it.
Hi Zub – yup jiathis works quite well. You can customize which icons to show up as well. Let me know if you have any problems, I can try to tell you what I know. It’s jiathis.com 🙂
NOch Noch
Hi Noch,
Very courageous! As I was reading your poem, a thought occurred to me; Are we not all writing the poem of our life? That too takes much courage to write and share! Sometimes it rimes, other it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s silly and funny, other times it’s dramatic and tragic. But, it’s the most beautiful poem of all! Keep writing… 🙂
Vlad
Hi Vlad
Yes yes! That’s so true! Everyday we weave the poem of our lives – and we must keep writing it, and immerse in our own joys and emotions. I like the silly times too.
Keep writing
Noch Noch
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