Keep safe distance.
Cite your claims.
Let the fog
Enshroud your shame.
Yield no whisper
Of remorse,
Give no sign
That you endorse
The fables of
The ancient wives,
Who kept their men
And lived their lives ..
The crossing bears
No one-way bar.
But shut your eyes,
And touch your scar,
Remember what
The madman said.
You just live once,
And then you’re dead,
And happiness
Is all a myth,
The road ahead
Is clouded with
Monstrosities
Who can’t be changed.
So label them.
They can be named.
The madman said
You can’t repair
Your love or life …
But you’re aware
Deep down below
The cloud of cries,
That life holds hope
That these are lies …
The choice is yours,
To live or burn,
To hear the lies
Or to return.
- Written by Anna Williams at age 32
This free poem is a Found Poem, written per the prompt at stoney moss: Found Poetry.
The item used to “find” this poem was the DMV Driver’s Manual.
P.S. No marriages were harmed in the making of this poem. I have no idea where I came up with the idea for the poem to be about a divorce. Maybe it was the DMV manual’s idea.
November 20th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
This is great! I had fun writing a found poem on my site too.
November 20th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Wow, Anna- that is fantastic. Your ability to find a poem like this in the DMV is great. I am surprised it has words like monstrosity in there! It makes you look at these things (or all written material) totally differently now….
November 20th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
But shut your eyes,
And touch your scar
Wow, I love that part.
Its awesome that this poem started as random words in a DMV manual.
November 21st, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Haha. No, “monstrosities” wasn’t in the DMV manual. I just picked some words and then kept writing, picked some more words and wrote more, etc. Like “keep safe distance,” “fog,” “cite,” “yield,” “crossing,” “one-way,” “road,” etc.
November 22nd, 2007 at 12:29 pm
A carefully woven piece, focused well on the idea in the title; and you’ve certainly pulled it off. I am promptly impressed.
Cheers.
November 23rd, 2007 at 10:23 am
Agree with everyone above. This works very well. There are some interesting rhyming connections there that made me think and propel the poem on nicely from the start: claims and shame and remorse and endorse for example.
Label them, they can be named: stood out for me for some reason.
Again, one of those well crafted and exquisitely structured poems of yours.
(pssst…note a little typo btw: your dead should be you’re dead hope you don’t mind me mentioning it…I think you’re like me and would like to know:))
November 24th, 2007 at 7:29 am
I love this, Anna. This is a little different than your others in that the lines are way shorter and dem thangs rhyme, too ;> but your rhyming pairs are great, especially:
claims and shame
remorse and endorse
and the following are great lines, too:
“shut your eyes, And touch your scar,”
“Remember what the madman said.”
and then repeating “The madman said”
All in all, this is a great read and it’s amazing you did this while driving..;>
December 6th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Keep safe distance.
Cite your claims.
Let the fog
Enshroud your shame.
that just set up everything so nicely… a great balance between emotion of love, and the sterility of a contract. nicely done.
December 10th, 2009 at 5:10 am
I’m curious, Who is the madman in the poem? I’d love to get a discussion going here. Thoughts?
Uncontested Divorce Forms´s last blog ..Child Custody Forms, A Tricky Subject
December 11th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
@Uncontested – The madman in this story is the local psychiatrist.