Friday, April 22, 2011

"I am sorry about my fear"

I am sorry about my fear
it was my mind's way
of avoiding pain

I know you loved me
you asked me to stay
that made me want to leave

I loved the feel of your
body beneath mine
it was always best

in the morning, the sun
on your skin, the bottles
of Speakeasy beer on the floor

by the bed, but the burning
inside my heart was not
passion, but fear

and the beer smelled
and the sun was too bright
and I just wanted to be without

* * * * *

This poem is in response to a prompt at Big Tent Poetry that begins "I am sorry about...". I also used a Prompt Mash-Up from Not Without Poetry:

The following prompts are from Bill Alton. Use them as titles, opening lines, or combine all of them into a single poetic form.
1. My body is a speakeasy
2. Morning comes without the sun.
3. I loved him most when he asked me to leave.
4. Pain is the mind’s way of burning through fear

Process Notes: I took all of the nouns from the sentences above (body, speakeasy, morning, sun, pain, mind's way, and fear), some of the verbs (loved, asked, leave), one adjective (burning) and one preposition (without) to use in my poem.

4 comments:

  1. Something about this piece makes me feel uneasy. I'm not sure what it is...I read it last night, and waited to comment this morning, thinking it would become more clear. Maybe it's that "I am sorry about my fear" sounds passive aggressive, I'm not sure.

    It's an odd piece, to me, but the uneasiness it brings makes it worth reading. I'll come back to it again to see if I can uncover why that comes for me.
    ~Brenda

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  2. Brenda, thank you for your thoughtful comment. I appreciate that you came back to it again. I agree, this is an odd one. You've given me something to think about - if this poems works in the way that I want it to.

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  3. Love the last stanza.

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  4. M.A.S., thanks. I'm partial to that last line myself. I'm glad you like the ending; that's what it's all about.

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