My heart slips,
falls.
Ice encrusted long ago,
disappointed.
Abandoned. Ignored.
Disgorged.
Shattered sound
ricochets.
Too late I understand.
I am the abandoner.
Aortic contractions
in northernmost veins.
Earth shudders
heaves
lets go,
as I have her.
Anmol hosts Tuesday Poetics at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets. Today, she asks us to explore confessional poetry. In Confessional, whose voice is heard in the first stanza? The confessor appears in the second and third stanza. This is how I felt when we took our trip to Alaska several years ago. I witnessed and heard the calving that is occurring more and more as we ignore the plight of our earth. Pub opens at 3 PM Boston time. Come join us!
lillian the home poet 
Reblogged this on The Dreaming Path.
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These lines, as if they were written for me. Thanks a lot for describing a troubled heart so beautifully. ☺️
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I feel also the guilt of being part of letting it happen without doing whatever we can to save the earth… I share that guilt.
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I love how you pulled me into your poem with the opening lines, Lill, and the sights, sounds and feelings you evoke in it. I especially love the lines:
‘Aortic contractions
in northernmost veins’.
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These lines also struck me. The combination of ‘shattered’ and ‘Aortic contractions/ in northernmost veins’ is heart-breaking.
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The earth is dying, you got it right.
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Midst the bleakest chaos in modern political history, the planet is perishing beneath our feet; plenty of guilt to go around. Thanks for the chiding.
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“I am the abandoner” – the sudden sense of responsibility – very powerful.
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I agree with Sarah. It reads almost as a parent leaving a child on the church step or the woman having an abortion. We are all of us guilty.
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How truly sad and this line sums it all: I am the abandoner.
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“I am the abandoner” – a hard lesson and freeing revelation.
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So sad that it likely is too late, We are the abandoners. This actually brought tears.
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A great statement on environmental change. Love the heart comparisons.
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The short, compact sentences in this verse are so gripping; they create these pauses for reflection as a substantial element to this understanding. This bit is so powerful:
“I am the abandoner./Aortic contractions/in northernmost veins.”
Thanks for participating, Lillian! 🙂
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There are a helluva lotta stuff and folks in life that we need to care for, and keep smiling. all you can do is keep those plates spinning and replace the ones that fall and break as quickly as you can… keepin’ those plates in the air is a bitch!
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I am the abandoner ….
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Lillian, I’m guessing here: is this the confession of ignoring your own body issues , sorry, I can’t tell. Or are you confessing guilt at not saving icebergs, which you can’t anyway? Or, agreeing with Kanzensakura, I thought it was about giving up on a child somehow. I read all the comments and see people quoting lines they like, but no better at seeing if anyone was clear on your confession.
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Oh, and I loved the photo of the cleaving iceberg… 🙂
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If we dare to look, all our our hearts fall and fail. Yes, abandonment everywhere. (K)
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Nice lines: “Too late I understand.
I am the abandoner.”
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I prefer to be more optimistic in my view of this. One instrument isn’t an orchestra, just as one person is not singularly the cause…or the abandoner.
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