April is National Poetry Month in the United States. In past years, to celebrate Poetry Month, I have shared poems and links to other poet’s sites. This year I wanted to do something different.
I follow several blogs by poets. I was inspired to do this poetry challenge after reading the following haiku poem written by Ben Dwyer.
Once I was alive
Now we live in photographs
Vicariously
-Ben Dwyer, posted January 27, 2020
I didn’t realize that the word vicariously was exactly five syllables, perfect for a haiku poem. You can check out Ben’s WordPress site by clicking on the following link: Ben Dwyer Haiku a Day Blog
Why the word “vicariously?” The definition of the word from Miriam Websters Online Dictionary states that it is “experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another.” At a time in history where so many people are having to work from home, practice social distancing and participate in shelter in place, it felt appropriate that the subject of a poetry challenge be experiencing and realizing life through another person, a memory, a fictional place, dream, etc.
This got me thinking about what my friends might be able to do with the word and theme of vicariously. I contacted Ben and told him of my idea, inspired by his poem and asked if I could use his poem in my blog. After receiving his permission, I began to contact friends who write poetry and see if they would be interested in the “Vicariously Poetry Challenge.” I also opened up the challenge to those who read my blog. The results are the following poems in alphabetical order based on the poet’s name.
* * * * * * * * *
It was like two souls colliding
An impact that would be felt in every corner of my being,
Changing my very foundation
Leaving me breathless from the blow.
A breath escaped so beautiful.
So pure, unadulterated, honest.
Such a collision so powerful, so genuine,
The charge of sparking energy without equal, without rival.
Beauty and truth in its most perfect state.
As I sleep
The taste of you
On my tongue, lingers the feel of your name across my lips
Savored dreaming so clearly of moving,
Entangled breathing and crashing spirits, colliding
The feel of you beguiling
In the light I feel the charge of your skin, beneath my grip
Taut and pulling
Your flesh aching to be drawn in
To be invited to power over your senses
The will of the intertwined to connect
The rush of blood
Reeling
Feeling
To know the sensation of connectedness
The shock and bliss
So soothing, so infinitely grounding
To bathe in the flashes of the morning dews upon the grass
The piercing of the pair that creates one
The breadth of the grasping for the real, anxiously surrendered at the moment
That which ceases time
And remains until chosen to be reignited
Even if only vicariously
Even if only vicariously
-Canidae & Sif
* * * * * * * * * *
Heirloom Pearls by Samantha Houston
In a chain long and unending
Reaching far past what my eyes can see
Pain and cruelty
Insecurity and competition
A scarcity of the care which should be abundant in all things
Has been handed downward from mother to daughter
Like a strand of heirloom pearls
Choking one generation to the next.
From You
Unflinchingly
To Me.
On the day I was born
Full of potential
Believing nothing
Knowing nothing
You gave me breath.
And like an evil fairy come late to the party,
You gave me this-
A strand of heirloom pearls wrapped tight around my neck.
As tightly, I imagine
As they once fit you.
Did you know what a choking hazard they were when you placed them there?
Or did you believe that it was natural
Because they had once been given to you?
You treated this generational pain
The pain your mother gave to you
And her mother gave to her
As some sort of genetic burden.
A congenital parasite…
Without questioning its attachment.
Without questioning its worth.
You clung so tightly to this parasitic way of life
You lost perspective on where it ended and you began.
You clung as if you couldn’t live without it
And you made your illusions true.
As you watched your life waste away
As you ceded ever more control
As your parasite devoured everything around you
You made me responsible for its care.
For easing your burden.
You made me responsible for feeling your pain
So that for a moment
You didn’t have to.
Do you expect me to wear my pearls with pride
The way that you do?
To burden my girls with this generational curse you’ve nurtured so well?
Yes.
Because that would validate the way you have lived your entire life.
No, I will use the strand you have given me
To draw a line in the sand.
Your pain and insecurities
Will not live vicariously through me.
They will not have breath through me.
And they will not pass onward through me.
A thousand and one gemstones may cross my neck
Until I find the one that fits
The one that covers and heals the marks left behind by your pearls.
So that one day
When my daughters are grown
They will never have to wear necklaces at all.
And your pearls will have been left in the sand
Given back to the oysters from whence they came.
* * * * * * * * *
Vicariously,
Live through you, but lose myself.
Annihilation.
-Jill M.L. Kanewischer, February 17, 2020
* * * * * * * * *
I hope that you have enjoyed the poems written by friends and fellow bloggers. I also hope that you take the time to check out other poets and blogs about poetry this month.
Happy Poetry Month!
Cats Out of the Box 