Holes

I have torn holes in life, portals
from one self to another, city
to city, country to country.

I have adapted my nostrils
to different scents and smells,
my tongue to sweet and sour.

I have adjusted my eyes
to everchanging landscapes,
falling from another sky

to land on concrete or grass,
sometimes on my feet,
sometimes flat on my arse.

I have learnt the languages of birds,
hummed songs of different bees,
and embraced new species of trees.

Each hole I have torn has left a scar,
crescent moons, comets and stars
tattooed on the skin of my universe.

Kim M. Russell, 19th May 2020

Seamless pattern. Moon face, phases of the moon, sun and crescent ...

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: About Portals

Anmol is back with this Tuesday’s Poetics and has shared an extract from ‘The pandemic is a portal’ by Arundhati Roy, an interesting way of looking at our current situation, as well as a selection of poems.

He reminds us that the global pandemic has changed the way we look at our existing systems and fault lines in our society, and refers to Roy’s recent essay, saying that it can be a portal to the kind of world that we want for ourselves – hopefully a better one.

Anmol would like us to mull over the word ‘portal’ as a theme for today’s Poetics. He says that we should not limit ourselves to the experience of this pandemic, but we can write about portals that we have crossed in our lives, possibly resulting from other collective experiences like that of war, social unrest, revolutions, and climate change.

59 thoughts on “Holes”

  2. Oh, I have missed reading your heartfelt verses — there is such an understanding of your experience and journey in this one. I love that kind of adjustment, adaptation, and learning that you talk about while also referring to the holes that were torn along the way too. Great job! 🙂

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  10. I specially admire the last two stanza Kim. This speaks for your versatility and eagerness to embrace and live with our many changes in life. May we all embraced a new specifies of trees.

    I have learnt the languages of birds,
    hummed songs of different bees,
    and embraced new species of trees.

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  13. In an odd way, we wrote from similar vantage points. Being a world traveler, you have created and closed a plethora of portals, expanding the parameters of self, touching the past and the uniques of so many of the planets corners, emerging as sage, guide and earth mother.

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  16. kaykuala

    Each hole I have torn has left a scar,
    crescent moons, comets and stars
    tattooed on the skin of my universe.

    As long as one can keep track of the progress and maintain a likely record, it might just evaporate into thin air. A record is necessary Kim, yes, agreed!

    Hank

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  24. Thank you for this beautiful poem. It took me to a moment where I connected with everything I’ve gone through in life, what stays and what is left behind, our adaption and place in the world. Every line is packed full of contemplation!

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  25. Pingback: Message from Your Future Self – writing in north norfolk

  27. Appropriate, that the holes we call through as we change our lives, leaves scars on the cosmos, as we are the center of that, haveing stardust in our veins and being a small corner of the cosmos that has some consciousness of itself, this is beautifully done, and gave cause for reflection for me about how we ore connected to and through it all, even if jsut for a time, it is not a littel life we lead, is is at the center of it all.

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