If I hadn’t written that poem

‘The world is never the same once a [good] poem has been added to it’. Dylan Thomas

If I hadn’t looked up
to search the heavens,
would my soul ever
have been soothed?

I waited patiently
for shooting stars
to zip across the deepest,
darkest winter sky –

but the clouds were dense,
obscured the view,
hid the full moon too,
but still I stood in awe.

If I hadn’t written
that poem about space
and time, and read
it out to you,

would I have ever seen
that look on your face,
the one that said
‘I feel it too’.

Kim M. Russell, 1st January 2019

Related image
Uemura Shoen, Woman Waiting for the Moon to Rise, Nihonga Painting, 1944

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Tuesday Poetics: Time, also linked to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Tuesday Platform

Happy New Year! Merril is hosting the first Poetics of the year, and she has shared her fascination with time and a wonderful poem by Natasha Trethewey, ‘Theories of Time and Space’.

Merril reminds us that, toward the end of December, many people begin to look back over the past year and some even make resolutions for the new year, which she kind of links to Janus, the god with two heads, doorkeeper of time and space, helper of lost travellers, and key-holder extraordinaire.

She also refers to Robert Frost’s well-known poem, ‘The Road Not Taken’ and ponders on its meaning and where it really mattered which road was taken.

Merril would like us to consider time and space and what if? What if someone or something took that less or more-travelled path?

66 thoughts on “If I hadn’t written that poem”

  4. Oh this is absolutely lovely! 😊 Often it is that our poetry touches another in ways indescribable. It is definitely one of the many reasons that we write! ❤ Happiest New Year to you and yours, Kim 😍 🎁

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  9. We may never know how our poetic words and sentiments may make a difference to a reader; a stranger perhaps that only knows you through your poetry. As a former teacher, I was amazed how empathetic teaching resulted in changed lives.

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    1. Thank you, Bev. I think I’ve reached the stage when there are so many what-ifs that I have to stay in the here and now, otherwise I’d never get out of the house! Happy New Year!

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  12. to dance the subtle lines, leaving footprints in the snow, even for the seemingly never-ending cold, of the darkest hours and days, to lift one’s gaze – in itself, is a blessing –
    and it becomes all the more magickal when that suspension between feeling the vastness and knowing its grandeur and yet somehow, being humbled enough to feel insignificant, this whole clash of feelings, the mixed resolutions, can end up being like a shooting star, especially when it lands at another’s feet – and suddenly – connection!

    words, and non-word exchanges … it all transits itself into a whole new language – perhaps this is simply the simple act of creation and change, that constant flow – so held, for a brief moment, makes it all more meaningful

    Happy New Year Kim – may 2019 be filled with light, laughter, blessings, and all kinds of magical wonders 🙂

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  13. Wonderful! I think we underestimate the impact that our poetry and profound thoughts can have on others, and there is nothing better than when they do in a positive way. It only takes a moment for words to change our lives.

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  15. “If I hadn’t ____ ” is one of my sayings but I am told that isn’t healthy, it shows dwelling on regrets and is negative thought. Not too much better is “If I had of _____” although it is considered positive. For sure, ‘if I had of’ taken an offered assignment to work on the Island of Seychelles I would not have met Mrs. Jim and so we would not have married, at least when we did.
    ..

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  19. Dylan Thomas’ poem is a good place for departure into the D’Verse theme — begs the question what would the world look like to us if we hadn’t written our poems. Fewer glazed eyeballs, in my case … But also, as you say, what is the world without the awe, and our friends’ ayes to our written sentiments? What indeed our sentences without the resonance? Great meditation, Kim. Here’s to another year of it.

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  25. Pingback: If I hadn’t written that poem – The Knotted Plot

  27. It’s interesting isn’t it, to see the responses our words receive? And when we can see the response in a person, that makes the power of words written, very real. Sometimes I finish writing, read my own words aloud, and have a visceral reaction to them too! Like, whoa….where did that come from????
    I enjoyed this, Kim.

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  30. Feeling, yes. To express with words something for which we don’t have words , and to live in that strange space together for a moment. Poetry. And your lovely quatrains with all those ooo’s. We are stargazing together here.

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