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Submitted by weirdelf on 9 June 2007 - 5:16am.| Updated 9 May 2008 - 3:25pm.
Style / Type:
freeform
If you cry and the wind changes
you will cry forever.
If you are angry
you are pulling a face
you are ugly
and if the wind changes
you ‘ll be ugly forever.
I heard and understood
my world was peopled with feelings
but they were wrong
an act put on
They should never be seen.
So I pushed my feelings down
they came back up
I ran away
they caught up
I hid in places in my mind
they found me.
So I went to war with my feelings
dirty tactics
sabotage and chemical warfare.
It was a rout.
They were shattered
scattered
blown away
and for years I lived behind enemy lines.
Now the enemy has withdrawn
and limping and wounded
my feelings are making their way home.
The messages they bring are painful
but the homecoming is joyful.
I want the raw truth, feel free to knock me on my back
thanks, Ice Princess
(12 votes)

Joe you have uncanny ability
Joe you have uncanny ability for completely missing the point. The poem is about addiction. Try reading the poems for themselves, not trying to formulate replies while you are reading. You might enjoy it more too.
I really dig this one!
I live this still, thought it was beat, yet it resurfaced.
maybe my God is not listening.
Your friend,
Mark
.
.
I can relate
I can relate to this all to well. I don’t know the ins and outs of the formalities of poetry, so I can’t offer advice on structure and such, but it speaks from a place long hidden. I liked it. Thank you for sharing it with us. I know it takes a lot to share the deeply personal. Smile and know you took a big step. Now pick up that pen and keep going :)
Ditto ,The Ice Princess....
Toward the Horizon and Beyond Jess ,A map written with words.
In ink,
David
(if the ending was a comment a seperation may bring clearity. )
making their way back home
well first off i want to say
that this should be…..
HA
just kidding i loved this poem
i read it three times now
man can i relate to addictive
addictions to wars
narcotics alcohol sex and all
good and mind numbing stuff
turn up the noise and turn
down the volume i used to say
see even that doesnt make sense
well it did at the time
yah im making my way home slowly
too Weirdelf im still alive
which is totally amazing
anyway great poem i feel because
i can so relate to it now
its nice when a poem can have
personal connection
way to go
AGAIN!!!
..O..
one of
the stronger pieces I’veread on the site, as always, Jess your work is rich, in a darkly tinged way. But what’s different here? Utter, utter hope. I like the journey back to life here, the reawakening, the fight, the struggle. I can relate, though not to the stresses and addictions you have, to my own types of addictions.
Mark W.
Love to read a poem that you
Love to read a poem that you have to re-read to get, and because you want to. Superb metaphor. Loved the use of the word ‘rout,’ I believe it may have been about to be deleted from the dictionary in the form you meant–saved now!
One small suggestion, but of course only a suggestion: the commas gave the read a choppy feel for me, do you really need that many? Think about it.
Great write though, I will read the other parts when time allows (damn this work thing!!)
Alobar
(Just my two cents, spend them on gum if you wish.)
well spotted, good sir!
It’s sometimes the smallest things can make a big difference. Will edit out some commas.
thanks for this and the rest
cheers
Jess
crikey! I lost all the commas
turns out line breaks and conjunctions were sufficient.
Thanks for this,
Jess
I periodically get accused
I periodically get accused of not having enough punctuation in (some of) my work, I usually answer that I prefer to let the reader find their own path. I think too many directional notes, too many signs on the road, detract from the scenery and confuse the read.
This poem flows a lot better now; it is an excellent work, as I said, now polished to perfection. Truly enjoyable to read.
Alobar
(Just my two cents, spend them on gum if you wish.)
Love this
Smiles:)
Barbara
Thanks for posting. I can’t relate to the addiction,.
I do relate with the war inside. I fight a war for sure.
but the first three lines I relate well.
Great poet.
thanks Barbara,
addiction has many faces, some of them hard to recognise, glad you found something in this.
cheers,
Jess
Winds of change
Not sure I understand how changing wind can keep one sad forever I would think the opposite as the changes gone through bring a good thing IMO or they did for me.
Mark
Mark hit it
I was wondering the same thing. I thought maybe it had that ‘if you keep your face that way, it’ll stick’ type meaning to it that we were always told as children. (hence, lies to children?)
Regardless… I really enjoyed this piece, Jess, and am glad that things are lookin’ up for you.
~Lynn (Jess K.)
————————————————————————————
~ “If guns kill people, then I can blame mis-spelled words on my pencil..” - Larry the Cable Guy
~ “Driver carries less than $20 in remorse…”
Jess
As usual, you’ve approached an old subject from an entirely new angle that only you can achieve. Strong use of metaphor, yet not so enigmatic as to be completely unattainable.
Not sure that I could ever reach the level of acceptance to overcome the enemy, but you’ve given me a glimpse inside the world of one who has.
Best,
Ronda
To answer a few obscurities,
When I was a child if I was pulling a face, for whatever reason, my mother told me that if the wind chnaged my face would stay that way forever. I thought it was a common “Lie to Children”, perhaps it is an English one.
The rest of the poem seems clear to me, if the metaphor is a bit over-extended.
cheers,
Jess
No different than ...
…here. My mom always told me, “Don’t do that, your face will freeze that way.”
Didn’t find your reference obscure at all. It is definitely one of those “Lies to Children.”
Ronda
A perhaps sad codicil to this ...
could be mentioned: that adults sometimes continue to believe the lies they were told as children—and merely pass them on to their own … as inflexible truth. That’s esp. true, I think, with religions in general. These beliefs (lies) keep us uninformed through most, if not all, of our adult lives. In other words, such pronouncements have already usurped truth … and leave no room for the real thing when subsequently it presents itself in the form of … whatever.
Love your theme. And I’m not at all surprised that you’ve been left angry. I suspect most of us hold unrecognized anger (uncluding, I’m sure, myself), a feeling that arises from feeling betrayed by one(s) we early counted on to be trustworthy.
It’s a shame that those of us who’re smart enough to realize things are amiss can spend (waste?) so many years trying to unravel all the lies. And even when a lie is erased, a residual remains that will not go away.
Yours,
Chuck
You are a man I would truly like to meet
face to face one day.
It is unlikely to happen give current geographical and financial situations, but I can well imagine you and me having some lively and (many other adverbs) discussions.
cheers,
Jess
p.s. goodness me! I could not decide then whether the word was adverb or adjective, I feel shamed.
Thanx, Jess
I appreciate your warm reply.
Always yours,
Chuck
>
I was so impressed by this I really didn’t know what to say at the time. This is touching.
I love the line “my world was peopled with feelings” very strong.