Fifteen-year Found Poem About My Dad
I move to the prairie because I have no real father.
The wind takes my sorrow to the long grasses.
My violence is placed in the plow.
This is the energy that digs and plants.
No father, absent father, cruel father.
I will take this to the prairie, the hole in the self,
the absence, the longing for guidance.
I give it back to the land,
package it up like an honor.
The prairie takes it in like a goddess.
She prepares rain for my harvest.
12 thoughts on "Fifteen-year Found Poem About My Dad"
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Wow! That is an incredible poem.
Where was that??
Wow!
Unusual long lines lain out like that. Unbroken.
“I will take this to the prairie, the hole in the self,”
OK for inquiring minds, we did figure out where this poem came from. It was on the computer and was in the packet that Linda sent as part of her application for admission to the MFA program at FDU.
What a poem, Linda. You capture the ache and its transformation well. Those two last lines really bring it home.
Holy crap this is good! It feels different from most of your poems—more lyrical, almost mystical. Yummy.
Woah, takes my breath away. Love the hope in the couplet.
The wind takes my sorrow to the tall grasses! Packaging the absence to give it up to the land!
The poem takes us to the vast openness and depth of prairie, a perfect place to be reborn.
Love this, Linda – the ending is wonderful!
The beauty of this made my heart stop.
Love the cadence
I live the transcendence at the end.
What a stunning poem.
This line particularly struck me:
“The wind takes my sorrow to the long grasses.”
The ending couplet is so powerful.
Simply breathtaking, Linda. Powerful imagery and rhythm. Masterful