Whale Shark

If a meteor was headed towards earth would I still be afraid of being honest?

I am chewing on decisions until they lose their flavour 

Until I can’t get the taste of them out of my mouth 

We bite our tongues, cut our skin, starve our stomachs 

And the body adapts

You find a way to go on 

But I am tired of this slow death 

This place is old bone 

Wearing me down like osteonecrosis 

I keep pretending there is a point to all this thinking

Praying that these analogies award me some peace or notoriety 

As if poking the bruise makes it more real 

We are all burning

Turning everything into a metaphor 

Sucking out the poison just to swallow it again 

Everyone is so tired all the time

Living for the weekend 

Wishing life away

I am tired of drowning 

Clinging to my thesaurus like a lighthouse in a tsunami

Sea salt in the wounds

We kiss people we don’t love

In a saga of backseat secrets

There are pockets of air in the ice

I am making myself cry just to prove I still can 

Chronically ill with political fevers

Like a whale shark, if I stop moving I die 

I can't sleep again

Every dream is just grief getting its way 

I've never been good at letting things die

This poem is getting quite lengthy I realize 

But so is this torture, why don't I have anything else to write about?

I wish I didn't feel like I have to prove I am in pain

Wipe that stoic look off your face 

Do something! Be something!

Spring is coming 

Draft apologies in your notes app

Groaning like an avalanche

The calm before the cannibalism 

An apricot rotting on the ground 

A fire hydrant stranded in the snow 

I just want all of this to mean something

Reviews

[emmajoygreen]

Coming to the end of my first read of your writing, I want to cry, I want to rest here, thinking, feeling even more.

Superb in every way! Your words move through a billion powerful thoughts and emotions, using like and larger to display scenes that over-filled my screen - welcomed as extra breath.

'I am making myself cry just to prove I still can
Chronically ill with political fevers
Like a whale shark, if I stop moving I die

I can't sleep again
Every dream is just grief getting its way
I've never been good at letting things die'

Those words are so emotional, they take empathy and wrap it around every letter laid in this masterpiece. Yes, nadia dmitri, that is what it is. This reviewer has been given a wake-up call: to be used in a second, third and fourth read of what is real poetry when set by a real heart.

'Wipe that stoic look off your face
Do something! Be something!
Spring is coming '

YES!

[nadia dmitri]

(Apologies for the long response time)

Thank you so so much, Emma. Your words are always so very kind and encouraging!

[Soren]

Words that look for meaning. More than an existential crisis a search for meaning and purpose. It is often a long float on the sea before land is sighted. Write on words have meaning not only for others but for the one writing them.

[SkinlessFrank]

when i feel this way, i head for the forest and try to forget

[June bug]

Everyone is so tired all the time
Living for the weekend
Wishing life away

I love this part so much, it is so true. Enjoyed this write.

[Thomas W Case]

Tremendous work. Very well crafted.

[Vol]

Nadia,
What a deep, dark lament! When I encounter such as this, I think I wonder why poets were NEVER this unhappy in the old days before machinery, electric lights and artificial noise. What would be your sadness if you were alone in a cabin on the prairie reliant on the sun for light? I'd go crazy for lack of stimuli, and my worries would be more easily solved... If I exhausted myself growing food and chopping wood, I'd probably just fall asleep and be happy with the rest I was getting. There have been massive studies about the mental and emotional consequences of moddern, urban life.
Vol

[nadia dmitri]

(Apologies for the long response time) That is such an interesting thing to think about, thank you for your review :)

[Poetic Beauty]

There is too much pressure to be something do something have something in this overachiever world we live in. It’s too fast paced with little down time causing people to over exert and over stimulate themselves.

We also are taught to bite our tongues and nod politely with a sweet smile of pure fabrication. I say what I think many time and I refuse to smile if it isn’t truth.

Backseat saga secrets happen more often than not because people are afraid of what the world will think if they give it up pack it in and find real actual happiness instead of living up to others standards and admitting no matter how hard they tried they can not get along and make it work.

Bleeding to feel something other than nothing because this world can be too much all at once

Just my take on this poem

[nadia dmitri]

(Apologies for the long response time) Such interesting insights, thank you so much for your review :))

[Poetic Beauty]

You are welcome. I enjoy pieces that left me journey into somewhere else or make me think and connect to it. This one made me think and allowed me to connect.

[Green]

Though it might seem lengthy, I have seen people write poems that could more accurately be called novellas or short stories, and you’re still quite a ways from that. Now whether that’s a challenge or a consolation I don’t know but I’ll leave it here anyway. As for me, as long as you’re saying something interesting the length is less of a concern. And wow did you manage to say a lot here. I want to pick out a favorite line but it’s hard for me to do so because so many of them are brilliant. I found myself reading compulsively the first time through and then re-reading just to take my time and absorb some of the lines more.

[nadia dmitri]

(Apologies for the long response time) Thank you so much for your kind words :)

[zain danyal]

I know others have mentioned it, but "calm before the cannabalism" is an incredible, incredible line. You also reference the process of making the poem in the poem, which I always think is super cool, and then you use that to poetic effect within the poem. Awesome sauce man!

[nadia dmitri]

Thank you so so much :)!

[Chris Shaw]

Overthinking is such a bloomin curse. That’s why I don’t sleep at night because there is so much crap racing through my head. You have some great metaphors here Nadia.

The calm before the cannibalism
An apricot rotting on the ground

Those lines send my brain into overdrive.

Chris

[nadia dmitri]

Thank you so much Chris, your review are always so kind :)