Thursday, November 5, 2009

Pushing Through the Surface

I thought I’d be
weightless
in water.

But my limbs are heavy
and filled with the small purpose
of staying put.

I can see the surface
just there -
but oh the effort!

I spend all my
fire
just catching my breath.

If you want to toss
a lifesaver
I like cherry best.

Dana, 2009

Note: This poem is about inertia, not depression, so don't worry Daddy! I am struggling a bit with my current physical limitations - but I think that I limit myself more than my body limits me.

6 comments:

  1. I like it too. Brilliant last line.

    I also your last line of comment. I am struggling with body limitations too, but i sometimes wonder if my mind is what limits me the most.

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  2. Your poem looks very simple and yet it seems to me that it touches a matter of life and death - an effort to get to the surface with all your body's limitations.

    By the way, there's a blog entitled 'weightless', and the blogger writes poems and prose on quite 'weightful' topics.

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  3. Inertia gets everyone eventually. But it passes. I like your last line.

    And I like your new masthead.

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  4. I love poems like this: so succinct yet so full of meaning. I think it's easy to underestimate the power of your mind in limiting - or encouraging - your body.

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  5. Excellent. I've been thinking about inertia too!

    Cherry is my favorite as well.

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Thanks for stopping by - I'd love to hear what you have to say!

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