I overhear fragments
of conversations bypassing me –
not whispers, not secretive;
I'm simply irrelevant.
They feel no obligation
to address me directly
or at all. Merely, my head
is the space where they live,
their context, background. They
have their own lives going on.
have their own lives going on.
Responding simultaneously to Quadrille #24: Whisper at dVerse and Mini-prompt: Voices at 'imaginary garden with real toads'. Also linking to Poets United's Poetry Pantry #337.
...and where do these voices come from? Peace be with you
ReplyDeleteI suspect the voices in this speaker's head and the voices in my head are friends with each other. They are probably snickering right now.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes get these voices, or thoughts, rambling through my mind and wonder where they come from. I suspect they do "have their own lives going on".
ReplyDeleteI love that "they have their own lives going on." LOL.
ReplyDeletelike we're just convenient dance halls for them... ~
ReplyDeleteI read this to be expressing a lot of pain, but certainly you could have been being playful and genuinely talking about imaginary voices in your head. But what if these are real walking-around people, the world, not paying you any attention? That hurts. And the way you broke the lines at the end, drawing out that "their" lives matter, insinuating that it feels like your life doesn't matter much to them.
ReplyDeleteSo if you're really hurting, here are my hands, caressing your hands and your face, saying I love you.
Oh, that's very sweet of you, thank you. I appreciate the kind thought. And, re-reading what I wrote, I see it's a valid interpretation. However, I was referring to the stray fragments of thought that bubble up from the unconscious, not making much sense.
DeleteLove this one!
ReplyDelete"They have their own lives going on." -- YES! Thoughts do that, don't they? Glad you finally heard those whispers, Rosemary, and liked up over at dVerse. :)
ReplyDeleteI love the sense of voices coming as uninvited guests...
ReplyDeleteOh this is soo intriguing! The idea of voices having their own lives going on makes me wanna know more and more!
ReplyDeleteAh, I love the whole idea behind this poem. Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThere is a wonderful liberation in this--not to be owned by the voices--poets I think are cathedrals of voices, so just keeping things tidy is an immense challenge. The way that dreams may dream us, so too voices may sing us: what we do with them is our business, though that may not matter, as you say, to the voices, the dream. Hey, I just work here. Thanks for responding to the challenge, Rosemary.
ReplyDeleteSome times these disjointed thoughts turning to voices can be amusing, especially when you answer them back!! .....I did enjoy your poem, Rosemary.
ReplyDeleteOh, they do bubble up in ways that make us think they have their own context, their own lives going on...!!
ReplyDeleteSometimes people are more interested in getting the words into the space where words live than that you appreciate or.mind them. Well writtrn.
ReplyDelete..
I know exactly how you feel in this poem, irrelevant...bkm
ReplyDeleteMy damned conscience is such a chatterbox.
ReplyDeleteI like this! I have known so many people, over the course of my life who move through their days from the perspective that they are at the center of anyplace they find themselves or any situation they come across ... an egocentric perspective. I think it is healthy and wise to pause, occasionally, and consciously take notice, that - all around us - people have their own lives going on.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you can ask the words to stop by and talk to you :) This put a smile of my face, Rosemary
ReplyDeleteStrongly identified with this, most writers might. I hear them, those voices, and wonder sometimes about those lives they have going on,
ReplyDeleteElizabeth
I interpreted this as an older person being irrelevant and ignored which is very mush the case in our society which treats people as if they have a use by date.
ReplyDeleteI am lucky to live in a small town where the older I get, the more I am treasured, even by strangers. It's a valid interpretation, but not the one I intended. I am beginning to think I should find a new and clearer title for this.
DeleteThis is wonderful, Rosemary. I am curious to find out what the other lives are like.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a very wise way to be with the voices in our heads
ReplyDeleteI thought at first you were talking about others and their disregard of elders in our society, but with the line about the voices being in your head I chuckled.
ReplyDeleteYes, the voices do have lives.
ReplyDeleteHow they thrive!
What I can't get used to is the phone conversations on speakerphone in public. Why?
ReplyDeleteI know these voices! Thanks for putting this in words.
ReplyDelete...a good conversation with conscience
ReplyDeleteZQ
Fascinating poetry, I consider myself 'crone age' ... many conversations bypass me now.
ReplyDelete