I ... entered the poem of life, whose purpose is ... simply to witness the beauties of the world, to discover the many forms that love can take. (Barabara Blackman in 'Glass After Glass')

These poems are works in progress and may be updated without notice. Nevertheless copyright applies to all writings here and all photos (which are either my own or used with permission). Thank you for your comments. I read and appreciate them all, and reply here to specific points that seem to need it — or as I have the leisure. Otherwise I reciprocate by reading and commenting on your blog posts as much as possible.

22 January 2017

The Voices

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.


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.

31 comments:

  1. ...and where do these voices come from? Peace be with you

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  2. I 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.

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  3. I 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".

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  4. I love that "they have their own lives going on." LOL.

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  5. like we're just convenient dance halls for them... ~

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  6. I 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.

    So if you're really hurting, here are my hands, caressing your hands and your face, saying I love you.

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    1. 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.

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  7. Love this one!

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  8. "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. :)

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  9. I love the sense of voices coming as uninvited guests...

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  10. Oh this is soo intriguing! The idea of voices having their own lives going on makes me wanna know more and more!

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  11. Ah, I love the whole idea behind this poem. Wonderful!

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  12. There 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.

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  13. Some times these disjointed thoughts turning to voices can be amusing, especially when you answer them back!! .....I did enjoy your poem, Rosemary.

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  14. Oh, they do bubble up in ways that make us think they have their own context, their own lives going on...!!

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  15. Sometimes people are more interested in getting the words into the space where words live than that you appreciate or.mind them. Well writtrn.
    ..

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  16. I know exactly how you feel in this poem, irrelevant...bkm

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  17. My damned conscience is such a chatterbox.

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  18. I 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.

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  19. Perhaps you can ask the words to stop by and talk to you :) This put a smile of my face, Rosemary

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  20. Strongly identified with this, most writers might. I hear them, those voices, and wonder sometimes about those lives they have going on,

    Elizabeth

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  21. 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.

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    1. I 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.

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  22. This is wonderful, Rosemary. I am curious to find out what the other lives are like.

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  23. Sounds like a very wise way to be with the voices in our heads

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  24. I 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.

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  25. Yes, the voices do have lives.
    How they thrive!

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  26. What I can't get used to is the phone conversations on speakerphone in public. Why?

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  27. I know these voices! Thanks for putting this in words.

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  28. ...a good conversation with conscience
    ZQ

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  29. Fascinating poetry, I consider myself 'crone age' ... many conversations bypass me now.

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