Windowless Door

This self-imposed darkness
I have put in place
Runs like wildly tumbling water
in my veins
Expressing itself as I release in words
from each pore
All of my self-imposed pain

This proud isolation
that I hold myself captive within
Contains no flowers
to brighten its view
Only my infatuation with this sentence
I have imposed
On myself
and these chains I wear too

In fleeting expressions
of freedom
to be found
I stare longingly
at a windowless door
Then tremble in fear and confusion
at the mere thought
Of even walking across the floor

My idealized image
of how my life should be
Holds me captive
here in my own war
I am the only one who can release me
from this space
Untie myself
walk out my windowless door

Reviews

[realmwriter]

Wow! This is perhaps my favorite of yours Neva. You deal with a topic rarely seen in your writings and you do it with the same ease and beauty as with those of enlightenment. Fear is indeed crippeling and can rendour us both powerless and imobile. Nice job!

[*~*Butterfly Kisses*~*]

Almost sad, and very inrtriging. Beautifully haunting, Neva!

[...]

Powerful and quite intriguing, makes one ponder a bit. I enjoyed the emotions in this write. Nicely done!

[ShameemAkhtar]

Windowless door... wow...

Amazing poem and I like how it flowed smoothly. I can practically picture the image you paint.

What makes this poem stand out is after how after depicting this gloomy state through the windowless door and the room where no light shines through, no air circulates and no flowers bloom, you throw the gloom one pitch higher in the following lines:

'Then tremble in fear and confusion
at the mere thought
Of even walking across the floor'

This is far from the only excellent thing in this piece. You depict this self-afflicted fear but nonetheless you are able to portray how the subject is helpless but longs for release from this state of suppression and fear...

Excellent.

Your last lines explain the why of this state. How you are disillusioned by this world but despite everything realize that you hold the key.

And to top it all, the picture you chose is very befitting and for me forms part of this poem and it shows silently and without words the subject breaking through the shackles. That this image is black and white, that the picture shows only a thread of light and that too from the ground level through the legs, that the subject walks through barefooted is really the next stanza in the poem...

And if you had wanted to portray this in words, I am not sure it would have had that stunning effect as the image (this is a compliment..)

Marvellous.

The more I write on this poem, the more I find it brilliant..

[Lily Mae]

Oh Neva.. powerful. I can feel the sadness, the letting go of the chains.. The flowers are there..the colors of life are there..just keep moving towards them..x

[_mal]

Can so understand what you're saying here, you've put it really well. Sad but no pity kind of thing

[Coyote Poetry]

A powerful poem. Easy to lock yourself in a self made prison. Difficult to desire to be free and become alive and unafraid again. Great and powerful emotion in this excellent poem. Thank you for sharing your amazing poetry.
Coyote

[Larry Dyson]

ok , door is windowless , cannot see the future...the ideals I set are unattainable or at least I suppose them to be, so I sit exhiled in my fear to act, I realize I am the one who must set myself free....

[WatashLegend]

Impressive write, with all of it's captivity it still channeled it and used it as fuel to dared not to see a new day but for a new day to see you, well done

[roy mccarthy]

great write neva,
paints a clear picture of ones fear,
and conquering it too,
sounds like a good idea to walk out of your windowless door!

[Audrey Howitt]

More raw, and it feels like truth--a beautiful and brave write!