GREAT POETRY (a workshop)

(Read More...)

This poem is part of the contest:

The Frenglishman

I have English in my heart.

I know how that sounds for a frenchman. Like betrayal, maybe, until I hear what English kept from going quiet. English got the poems, the long thoughts, the little jokes I used as splints.

French is not in my heart.
It’s dans mon corps.

I know how that sounds too. Like I’m hiding a language in the body because my mouth keeps dropping it. But French got there before grammar did: the room changing, the look across the table, ça va landing in my stomach as leave it alone. It got the warning. It got the flinch. It got the body before I did.

And yet, when I bleed,
I bleed
before either language
gets a say.

— patrickgadoury, Jun 01, 2026

About This Poem

Style/Type: Free verse

Review Request Direction: What did you think of my title?
How was my language use?
What did you think of the rhythm or pattern or pacing?
How does this theme appeal to you?
How was the beginning/ending of the poem?
Is the internal logic consistent?

Review Request Intensity: I want the raw truth, feel free to knock me on my back

Editing Stage: Polish

About the Author

Country/Region: CAN

This user supports Neopoet so it can be free to all

Critiques

Frederick Kesner

2 days 19 hours ago

Most enjoyed Patrick

Loving the language play here. And to 'bleed before language has a say,' now there is a punch of a line! "Do we nod bleed!" a great playwright once wrote. This feels personal and existential like a multilingual raison d'être. Gives the feel of a Francophone that is an Anglophile. Perhaps it's an imagining on the reader's par. Most thoroughly enjoyed.

devoejack24

2 days 17 hours ago

enjoyed. . a tale of two…

enjoyed. . a tale of two consciosness's(sp) i get the feeling of twins out of sync. but i love the jouney. certtainly love the resolution of tension in the last stanaza.

p.s thx for the nice commen ts on Near and Far. plz look at A Requiem which is the revised version.