when our words run

old words

 

I remember you

your whispered half-questions

resembling the thoughts I almost had

on another cloudy day.

Your honest words filled me,

tempted me into flights of

unexplored consciousness

and step by step I ventured

farther from my own locked doors.

I wandered out alone

into bright, dead-of-day streets

full of my own possibilities

seized by my own fallibilities.

Some days I will meet the gaze

of the demons that haunt this world

but on others

when my self-fed fears are too much

I may need you to walk beside me.

Take my hand.

Your words are my strength.

Your strength is my hope.

My hope is your redemption.

We will save one another.

Reviews

[jcarlson33]

I think there is some striking symbolism in the "dead-of-day" line. Overall, the rhythm is incredibly immersive while still being broken up by the lines. "And step by step I ventured
farther from my own locked doors."
Something about that line really gives a nice brisk rhythm. Part of this poem seems like a biting angst within the speaker competing with the outer source of strength from a loved one. Well done.

[Emily B]

Thank you!

[Jibey]

Seven years ago I loved this poem... Seven years later is still has its powerful effect...

So good to read you again

[Emily B]

Thanks, dear!

[Rosalind Gale]

You are the purest of wordsmiths Emily. Truly a delight to drop in and read you. Much love -

Rosa
-x-

[Emily B]

I am blessed by the company :)

[Kristallo]

I love the tone of this, it perfects the duality of beauty and boldness, tenderness and strength. It's very lovely, and I felt I could so closely relate to your convictions expressed here. Thank you for sharing, the composition is brilliantly written.

[h d e rushin]

your poetry (2009?) puts you in the room with the sleeping child like Sharon Olds, the mother the
lover, the woman who faces her own fallibilities of human strength and hope for imagined futures.
Nothing is more hauntingly fulfilling than honesty taking flight.

a wonderful write Ms. Burns

dana

[Corset]

I love it when someone digs up old words so that we can revisit them, especially when they are as wonderful as these.

[Marie Anzalone]

But one must be so careful, mustn't one? Because once we venture out of the locked doors, even if we return to them, they can, once unlocked, never be the same again. And how many of us have beat our fists against the ceiling of the sky at that fact until we saw it, and its messengers, as gifts of utmost value? I'd say you have handled a five-year transition beautifully.

[Emily B]

so excited to see where the next five years takes me :)

[Marie Anzalone]

I am, as well!

[Emily B]

the friends i have gained are so much more supportive than the ones of the past

[Marie Anzalone]

maybe it is not such a bad thing to let nature take its course and settle into the circles where we naturally trend

[paradoxical]

Wow. Well done! Someone else has already quoted the ending, which was my favorite bit of this amazing poem. Thank you for sharing. Adding this to my library.

[☢ZoMbIeS sLaYeR&#..]

i like this poem alote, it says soo much :) good write! keep it up