Careless

Sometimes,
I can’t remember who I am.
I look at photographs and wonder,
where did she go,
that carefree girl, that careful mother,
so careless with herself?

I often feel disjointed, as if part of me
has broken off,
a branch
hanging,
buffeted by the wind of time,
and wonder, is it mine?

When I read a poem
that was written in my name,
I scrutinise each line for me,
proof that I write poetry
and find that careful,
carefree girl I so carelessly mislaid.

Kim M. Russell, 29th June 2018

Teenage me

My response to Poets United Midweek Motif ~ When I Think About Myself  also linked to dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night

Sumana has given us a thoughtful motif this midweek, and she begins with Maya Angelou’s poem ’When I Think About Myself’ – truly inspirational. She also includes poems by John Clare and Gerard Manley Hopkins, as well as quotes from Shakespeare and Ingmar Bergman, to inspire us to write a self-portrait poem.

41 thoughts on “Careless”

  2. I have a similar experience when encountering my younger self in the form of a photograph or something I wrote years ago… We carry all our former selves in us, the carefree, and the careless, and the much too careful ones, too.

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  3. That touched somewhere deep inside, Kim. Something most of us would identify with. A kind of loss but without pain, more like a whistful ache, a longing to be all you are all of the time. Loved it!

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  4. I too! Oh, this resonates through my many lives. Where did she go? Do I remember this one? And did I write that? I like many of them, though. And I know I am not in delusion, I know that I am whole. Thank you for this poem.

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  18. I like this a lot, Kim … the reflection and rediscovery upon one’s bygone past. “[T]hat carefree girl, that careful mother, / so careless with herself?” Quite a hook in this line in particular … which doesn’t stop ringing in my head.

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