Heart
After Dorianne Laux
Heart rattles rolls into long grass
under an apple tree
Heart thumps bang bang bang slips
slippery as a cucumber
Heart is not/cannot/not even when it snows
Heart is dark darker
bright brighter brightening light
Heart switches on switches off without
consultation without warning
Heart breaks broke shattered when s/he
didn’t/couldn’t/ smile forgive
Heart is tired very
very tired even
exhausted
keeps going whatever the weather
stops when the sun shines or it rains
because it has no umbrella or wellington boots
Heart smells of toasted cheese
catches the fragrance of violets
shit potatoes grow in
Heart tireless till it stops
because
time’s
up.
End of game.
No more smiles blood/
cold.
At the end it is you/me without a smile
in the cold sun setting in the breeze behind
the old oak yellow and gold splurge behind
This poem was published by Dreich in December last year. I decided to use it here in part because it’s Valentine’s Day this month. I wanted to blog about inspiration and this poem exemplifies it well. During the pandemic I joined several of Wendy Pratt’s poetry workshops. She encouraged us to experiment with form and this poem arose from that playing around. Dorianne Laux’s first line of her poem Heart sets the tone – ‘The heart shifts shape of its own accord -/ from bird to ax, from pinwheel/to budded branch.’ I wonder in retrospect how I dared to write a poem at all, but it was interesting as to what turned up. It became my poem. No-one else would choose such words and allow them to fall on the page in the way they have. Each reader probably interprets the poem in a different way.
I’ve discovered that inspiration may be the result of an outside trigger as in this case, but it needs an impulse from the heart to give it life. What scares/excites me, is where will that impulse take me? What if I dare not leap into the unknown? Sometimes a prompt from a workshop leader, or the encouragement of a writing friend, can push me into that scary place – and to the many who’ve done that, I’m grateful.
Inspiration also comes from being outside, from walking or cycling, from sitting in cafés, from reading familiar and challenging poems. It arises from many moods not simply love, but grief, depression and recovery. Any experience that reminds us we’re alive.
References:
Dorianne Laux, an American poet, has published several poetry collections. Heart can be read on the Poetry Foundation website.
Wendy Pratt, a poet and writing facilitator, has published a poetry collection, When I think of my body as a horse. I recommend it.
Photos: I took the top one in Lyon while we were on holiday before the Pandemic, and the other on the sand at Barmouth of an unknown couple. I hope they are happy together.
Dreich publishes a variety of poems in its magazines and pamphlets. As the name suggests it’s based in Scotland and runs open mic sessions from time to time.
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