| | April is National Poetry month, so I thought I'd share a personal poem for each day of the month. I've been accruing poems ever since I began writing them in 5th grade (thanks Mrs. Burd!) and have quite a lot I could share. But over the course of my life I have largely kept my feelings to myself - which means I haven't shared a lot of this before. In fact, it really wasn't until Elin's birth that I started putting myself out there. Poetry has always been my go-to form of expression, as it is an individual - personal thing. You can make it public, but it really begins as self-expression to oneself. But once you have kids, it really doesn't work that way. They don't care who is around or what the situation is - if they want your attention or affection, you had better give it to them. And fortunately, I want to give it to them. Elin and Atticus have especially pulled expression out of me, and along with Catalina, they have made it easier for me to share of myself. So here's catching up for lost time. |
Since the first week of April is the week leading up to Catalina's birthday on the sixth, I thought I'd focus the first week's worth of poems on romantic love. The first poem I am sharing is titled "Unspoken." It was the first poem I wrote with Catalina in mind, though it wasn't a poem directed towards her. It was actually a poem that embodied my inner dialogue. I remember sitting in a Mexican airport waiting for a connecting flight back to Mexico City. I was deliberating whether or not I should share with Catalina how I felt. I wasn't a confident individual when it came to romantic pursuits, and I hadn't dated anyone for half a decade.
"Unspoken" is the conclusion of my deliberation. While most discussion of words focuses on how bad it is to say mean words and how good it is to say nice words, my conclusion inverted this idea. In the poem I speak of bad words left unspoken as rising to heaven, as their unspokenness is an honorable thing. But the good words left unspoken do not encounter the same fate. I concluded that to avoid pursuing Catalina with my words could lead to an eternal tragedy, and time has shown me how true that would have been.
"Unspoken" is the conclusion of my deliberation. While most discussion of words focuses on how bad it is to say mean words and how good it is to say nice words, my conclusion inverted this idea. In the poem I speak of bad words left unspoken as rising to heaven, as their unspokenness is an honorable thing. But the good words left unspoken do not encounter the same fate. I concluded that to avoid pursuing Catalina with my words could lead to an eternal tragedy, and time has shown me how true that would have been.
| the_unspoken.pdf |
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