Iphigene here.
Last time I was in Gathering Books was I think in 2017. I have taken a back seat from posting as my life right now has kept my hands full. Today’s post was something I deliberately asked Myra and Fats to give to me. Two days ago, I was sitting in a cafe and was trying to write out my sadness. It was a deep sadness I have become acquainted with these past few years. One that makes you question every single choice you’ve made. As I wrote things down, I found myself visiting our website and checking the last time I posted. I found my last poem “Rewind” and read through everyone’s comments, reading through each comment moved me. I realized two things: 1) Poetry saves me all the time, and 2) She has lead me to a community that understands.
My first foray into sharing my poetry online was on a site called Sharepoetry. It was there that I got to expose my poems to fellow poets who were both supportive and critical. In that site, I grew as a poet and met people who made life a bit more bearable. This time around, the Poetry Friday community has become that space to my poetic soul. I came back today with that sense of gratefulness. Poetry has indeed been one of the best gifts life has given me. To read it, to write it, and to share it has made every dark day in my life bearable if not better. Thank you community.
I share to you my second ode to poetry. For more poems, head to Laura. I hope you enjoy this poem.
Ode to Poetry II
If I swallowed the pills and
Let life’s end be the last poem
I wrote, I would have
Forgotten
How you called out to me
In the depths of the ocean
Caught me in your net
And pulled me to your
Boat,
How you coaxed me to life
With your song, so vividly
Vibrating at the depths
Of my hallowed out
Heart,
How you brought me a voice
That bled through my fingers
In inky black pools
Of memories and
Wounds,
How you drew me into
The warmest circle of
Strangers, whose love of you
Echo in the depths of our
Souls.
If I swallowed the pills and
Let life’s end be the last poem
I wrote, I would have broken
Your heart—my heart,
My love,
My dearest,
My Poetry.
Gathering Books 
This. SO GORGEOUS, Iphigene! Welcome back! I’m feeling so much gratitude for your words and your life. Yes, poetry saves us and blesses us. Thank you. And the art featured here: I want to live in it! xo
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Thank you, Irene. It’s good to be back. I think I owe it to poetry and the community to be here and share my poetry. 🙂
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It is lovely to read your words again, Iphigene, to feel that poetry and poetry friends bring you comfort. It certainly does to me! Your art and the poem brings light to darkness, a voice shouting out. Thanks for sharing again.
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Hi Linda,
It has been a while since I wrote any poetry, I am just grateful to all of you and poetry for just existing. It is consolation and joy. 🙂
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So happy to see you back with another of your poems, Iphigene! Indeed, poetry, and I think, art in general, saves all of us in some way. It’s what makes us human, and sharing with others makes us realize we are not alone with our fears, sadness, struggles, and moments of joy. The power of words can never be underestimated.
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Hi Jama,
Yes to everything you said. I am grateful for art every single day.
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Your poem and painting are gorgeous, both so moving and filled with depth and desire. your painting really speaks, and captures me. In your poem I feel the tumult and then in the poem and painting I feel a rising up and release. So glad to have you sharing both of these with us. I hope to see more of your poetry and painting soon!
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Thank you Michelle. I felt the painting and poem came hand in hand exactly because of the rising up and release. I do hope to be able to share some poetry and art as often as I could. 🙂
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What a lovely tribute. Welcome back.
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Welcome homes, sweetie. What sadness is poured out in your poem…. there is a turn, an upward turn of choosing the last poem for a different time. I’m so glad. Your painting also pulls the viewer up…and out. I wish you many moments of words and painting and up.
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Thank you Linda. It’s good be home.
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Iphigene, so glad to see you here. That’s what I really love about poetry and this lovely community dot-dot. It is always here waiting for you when you are ready. poems that share our hardest moments in choices are so powerful. Your painful poem, ending with hope, and full of such vivid imagery, really touched me. Hugs…
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Thank you Laura. I have always found poetry as the medium by which I am able to translate my struggle into something more beautiful. 🙂
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Nice to have you back! I can imagine your artwork on the cover of a notebook (for putting poetry in, of course!). Enjoyed your poem very much, especially this image: “How you called out to me/In the depths of the ocean/Caught me in your net/And pulled me to your/Boat.”
I wrote a post a while back called “In Your Boat”: https://tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/2018/01/in-your-boat.html I think it connects to your poem, how poetry is in our boat (and the poetry community).
xo
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Hi Tabatha,
Thank you. It’s good to be back. Oh, such a lovely post. It was warm and reassuring to read those words. Thank you for leading me there. Indeed, there are many in that boat, i am not alone. I learned that this week.
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Welcome home, Iphigene. The Poetry Friday community wraps is healing arms around you from across the ocean. Peace, and be well.
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Thank you. Thank you very much. 🙂
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I love your two conclusions, and I’ve come to understand the same important things. Your painting and poem are both gorgeous–I’m glad I found them.
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Thank you JoAnn. Hopefully, I get to do more of this.
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Poetry saves us always. I love. The poem and the painting. Welcome back.
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yes it does!
Thank you. I’m gad you enjoyed it.
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