I read your poem just before I was going to bed. Now I can't sleep. Very probing, very insightful. Disturbing, in a good way. Have to ruminated a bit more on the images. Thank you for posting it.
Heart Reader
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Thank you for your comments.
Adam, I have been thinking of your response to my poem and I would like to say that the mixed metaphores are an integral part of this poem for me. I am juxtaposing the heart and the brain as part of my human experience. I decided on the words "hieroglyphic code" for describing my heart because one must be familiar with the language in order to decipher the code and codes can be sort of like a puzzle with missing pieces. They may just, after all, be under a rug, you know...not necessarily non-existent.
The brain and the heart (by heart I mean emotions not the organ that pumps blood) are connected for me and because, in my case, the brain is somewhat like a downed or damaged wire it may be what is causing the pieces to go missing.
Also, the downed power wire could be another person who is obviously not mentally and emotionally stable but to whom I feel a very magnetic connection, maybe because we are both in a similar situation...
Sorry for taking so long to respond but for some reason this is just something I needed to get out right now.
By the way, your words here are very intuitive, I think:
"I think these are very striking and creative metaphors but appear as if they're trying to steal the limelight from each other in this poem. It seems that instead of one poem we're reading two different poems that are wrapped around each other here. Both have the same underlying emotions of sadness, loss and desperate confusion, but perhaps unbraiding the two poems and letting each stand on its own would make two more concentrated and unified experiences."
I like your poem D. It reminds me of times I've been surprised by my own emotions or didn't understand my own behavior. I like the idea of trying to understand an incomplete alien text.
Thought provoking . . . (isn't that what poetry is suppossed to inspire?) I have read it thrice, looking for the above mentioned inconsistancies, and failed to notice any gap in the flow of logic. Maybe I've a wire down too?
Have you ever wanted to be a heart reader
or crawl inside another brain?
My heart is written in some alien hieroglyphic code
with pieces missing
and my brain has been stormed--
There is a downed power line
and a sign:
DANGER!
DO NOT ENTER!
Everyone congregates to see the damage.
Who can resist staring at a wreck?
Somehow exciting and life affirming, isn't it?
I'm trapped behind the downed wire.
I want to walk right up to it;
risk electrocution.
Yet I am transfixed by my fear...
The wire probably isn't even alive.
I run and hide,
afraid of the people on the other side
afraid of the rescue workers
afraid of the wire
afraid of my fear.
How much longer can this go on?
I pretend like it doesn't matter
and lower my head looking for the nonexistent
missing pieces.