It's mad easy to become lost.
You are so cold and distant, part of me is begging,
the rest of me a raised fist, cocked.
Everything inside me is in rivulets down a window
and it's moving,
dear November,
like a scared hare in the stalky brown fields.
Dear November,
I think I married you once, had your child,
or came to your funeral every year wearing heartbroken black.
I was your dove, dear November,
and your crow.
Dear November,
I need to know that you remember me beautiful,
even if I turned dry as a page,
stale as a bowl of potpourri in a haunted house.
I am crying now, dear November
and December's smile mocks us both,
Cher Novembre,
mon triste bien-aime.*
________
*Dear November, my sad beloved
for Dverse Poetics for the love of letters.
I like this, the ambiguities in it, a sad, unsettled November as metaphor for so much.
ReplyDeleteI read this like you personifying November or making the season embody someone close to you. It read like a bittersweet, haunting love poem. I liked it a lot.
ReplyDeleteI like the imagery of the potpourri.
ReplyDeleteI love this!!! November will always remember you as beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful Shay. It touched me.
ReplyDeleteOh WOW!!!!!! Exceptionally fine. I love it. "I was your dove and your crow." You knocked this one out of the park.
ReplyDeleteI love this, and loved the "I was your dove, November and your crow"
ReplyDeleteI like the creativity in this piece. Well done.
ReplyDeleteArcadia Maria
That I too have past loves of which I could say, or once have said, when they were still alive "part of me is begging,
ReplyDeletethe rest of me a raised fist, cocked" - I wear as a badge of a life lived fully and unafraid...
Love this letter to November! Good job. To be the dove and the crow. Oh, this wet, cold angry November.
ReplyDeleteThis captures in amber light the spirit of November; sere, isolated between heat and cold, a rambling house of memories peopled by ghosts and fugitive emotions. A season of our life for savoring and for sorrow. Beautiful writing, Shay.
ReplyDeleteNovember is so much I feel is the worst we have to bear, to me it is mostly a deep deep darkness, love that you still managed to write it as a loveletter, which is maybe what we do, trying to make sense of all out failed relationships.
ReplyDeleteThe metaphor of November for lost love or lost youth is so powerful.
ReplyDeleteThe love-hate tone of the letter makes one feel like a voyeur The relationship with November is complicated yet intriguing, leaving the reader conjecturing. Thanks for joining in, Shay. .
ReplyDeleteThe internal/external imagery lose their distinctions as they run "in rivulets" together like a painting left out in November's rain. And one almost wonders who is addressing whom, the writer can just as well be November, and how will I (persona) remember November? Perhaps as beautiful once again. You write at turns with a scalpel and a soft brush. It leaves us crying and hoping.
ReplyDeleteWow, Shay... that last verse in particular... just pierces me...
ReplyDeleteMuch love,
David
SkepticsKaddish.com
I love this, Shay! Unique and beautiful as always.
ReplyDeleteI can't decide which stanza I like best. The poem as a whole expresses the love/hate I have with November. I got married once in November. I should have worn heartbroken black.
ReplyDeleteThis is just beautiful, Shay! So well-chiselled with a haunting rhythm and I love that final stanza, especially these lines:
ReplyDelete"I need to know that you remember me beautiful,
even if I turned dry as a page,
stale as a bowl of potpourri in a haunted house."
Every stanza is cold, dark, and absolutely lovely Shay! I LOVE this November poem!
ReplyDelete