My Voice

Okay, maybe “despair” isn’t the word I’m looking for.

Maybe it’s just “desperation.”

Maybe it’s impatience and anxiousness, hoping to find my unique voice, but I feel I’m shouting in a vacuum, broadcasting loud and clear when no one’s tuned to my frequency.

Plus, whenever I think I have something profound to say, someone cleverer has said it more eloquently than I could.

But you know what?  I think that fate, coincidence, God, whatever, aligns things so that surely my signal will resonate with the correct receiver and someone will find meaning in the program. 

And won’t that be grand?

Reviews

[The Representative]

Jennie, I'll express something to you, which is usually a concern of mine......after, the effort used to think clearly about what it is needed to say, it's then form of presentation.


Your form's presentation, of what it was you were just saying was perfect.


I'm not myself someone who gives much time to notions such as fate, or God, at least not in the way commonly thought of, however......what it was that "you" had to say, resonated with me.



Lovely piece of expression.

[Jennie Baron]

Thanks much, I appreciate it. It's gotten good response for something that just came to me out of the blue all at once.

[The Representative]

So much of the time, they're the hardest things to take the time and make the effort to write aren't they......the things which, for as intelligent as they are, occur to us spontaneously.

[Kathy Van Kurin]

Jennie Baron,
"My Voice" makes sense. Our lives can sometimes seem an empty vacuum. The longing to be heard and known and loved: I think they go together and it takes some time and work to break through. This poem is identifiable to me and a very identifiable experience..............Thank you for giving your voice...............Kathy

[Jennie Baron]

And thank you for your kind words and they're much appreciated! This poem has been up for a while but It's always uplifting and exciting when someone new discovers and enjoys my work. Best wishes and happy writing, Kathy!

[Kathy Van Kurin]

You are so welcome and I am glad that you can enjoy and share ideas and lessons learned within your writing. We are looking for answers and sometimes we recognize our commonality in each other's writing.

[Misery]

Signal received...and it is grand.

[Jennie Baron]

That's excellent! Your reading and review are appreciated; thanks much!

[Misery]

You are welcome, dear poet.

[Moonie]

I've felt the same way much too many times, ma'am- shouting in a vacuum where no one can hear me, or getting manipulated into thinking that someone else happens to have said the same thing before me, in a better way. Sometimes, it feels as if there is nothing left to say at all.
How beautifully you've managed to bring out this feeling of helplessness which we all seem to share as writers.

I relate to your words, ma'am!! :)
It sure would be grand to find someone whose transistor radio is tuned to this frequency. :)))

[Jennie Baron]

Thank you very much! This is an oldie but a favorite of mine. I guess it's more prose than poetry, but all of it poured out of me very quickly. I truly appreciate your reading.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i must be in that same vacuum...because i get your words, and relate to them...
i must be another dusty poet just waiting to sucked into a poem...and yours pull me in...

but i feel this way often enough...my words are out there, but just make no sense to anyone else but me.

like an electrolux poet.

[Jennie Baron]

An apt simile! I've noticed that certain reviewers don't seem to understand my meaning but others (like you) "get" it right away. Maybe that's because I didn't express my meaning precisely enough; maybe it's because they overthink it.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

a little abstract is good, Jennie...i don't feel it is necessary for readers to get "it"---better that in their own way they get "something" out of what i write...i always tell my poetry students in class not to try to figure out what the author was thinking when he or she wrote the poem but instead, try to figure out what you are thinking when you read it..
i think poems that spark a reaction, some interpretation...those poems are successful
jacob

[John Anderson]

Very enjoyable poem wonderfully written

[Jennie Baron]

Thanks much! This one, I think, has a conversational tone that is different from my other poems.

[maria ( rose)]

I think that fate, coincidence, God, whatever, aligns things so that surely my signal will resonate with the correct receiver and someone will find meaning in the program.




And won’t that be grand?
YES indeed. Love this write. Truly expressed with an honest and open approach.

[Jennie Baron]

I'm glad you liked it, and I appreciate your taking the time to read and comment. This one came to me very quickly, and that's often where our most honest and open poetry comes from.

[Jennie Baron]

I thought it was like prose and almost conversational in approach, but I decided I liked that and kept it that way.

[Sami Khalil]

This was grand indeed as far as subject matter and honesty...Excellent...:).............

[Jennie Baron]

Thanks for the complimentary word, Sami. I have thought at times that it comes off like prose and would seem more like poetry if it were broken up into short lines.

[Sami Khalil]

Yep. You are welcome...:)..................

[Nusquam Esse]

This was actually the main reason on why I didn't write for so many years. It wasn't that I was afraid, but rather that no matter what I tried to put to paper, it didn't seem to contribute anything. There was nothing new or creative for me to say, it was all just the same... and whatever was there never resonated with me like the classics; I felt like a baboon! Then one day, for no explicable reason, I put pen to paper, and I found a voice that I had never seen before. Suddenly I felt like I could write something which was creative, and uniquely my own. I desperately hold to that feeling, since for that one moment, I felt like something beyond a simian with a crayon. I still don't feel like I am on the same level as what I aspire to be, but suddenly it feels like more than just a long shot, I feel like I can reach that signal. As if I have aimed my signal at a star that I am convinced has life, and while I have not heard back and possibly never will, I feel that it will reach that star--unlike when the signal was merely pointed to the sky. ;) Practice, Experience, and Dedication are what I need now to hone that signal. Again, something which I can empathize with entirely; and a piece of prose you have here which is close to the heart. I hope you can find your voice and signal!

[Jennie Baron]

Interesting thoughts and spot on. And indeed this may be more prose than poem except for being short and attempting to express an idea image in a few short, well-chosen words.

[Blue]

I can relate to this. I often struggle with the same questions especially when it comes to my writing. I ask myself, "What's the use of jotting my thoughts down when someone has already written a better version of this?" But the thing is, nobody is us, nobody has our thoughts, nobody can write the way we do. Also, I agree with you when you said that, "fate, coincidence, God, whatever, aligns things so that surely my signal will resonate with the correct receiver and someone will find meaning in the program. "

An insightful write, Jennie. I also commend you for your consistent metaphors.

[Jennie Baron]

I so appreciate the good word, Blue. Thanks much.