Reading through all the loves poems I felt like this one really had the most staying power in my mind. That could be because I have heard it before but I think it has more to do with the feeling of loss. For the most part we all feel loss in the same way. Losing a friend, love one, parent, anything there is always that moment where you feel as though the world should stop but it doesn’t it sadly just goes on around you. Thinking about this I decided to write a poem about my own loss and love.
The Nursing Home Waiting Room
I sat in a garden of flowers on the maroon sofa
Electric yellow tennis balls dance across the floor on the end of walkers. In a Lonely Place flashes on the TV across the room,
Boggart murmurs to the old women in recliners. Today's menu is glowing bright;
Prime rib, mashed potatoes, peas.
It’s Thursday.
It all should be the same.
Everyone smiles.
I turn to watch the distorted trees and flowers through plastic windows.
The smell of floor cleaner and cooked beef surrounds them all.
It all seems the same.
Wheel chairs creak and turn down the hallway in front of me,
I pick up the old red New York Central hat and hold it close.
Nurses walk by, their white shoes squeak on the linoleum floor.
He is gone.
It all seems the same, it isn't the same.
There is nothing left but paper work.
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3 comments:
i liked your poem, it had complete relevance to "stop all the clocks" because it showed exactly that, that the world is still turning even though your own world is upside down.
Anne, this is just beautiful! Poetry seems to allow you access to the "inner mind" of yourself and also characters with whom you share empathy. In this poem, the lines, "It all should be the same./
It all seems the same./it isn't the same" seem to capture the theme of Auden's poem...that feeling that everything in life is useless and that time should just stop when a loved one dies.
I encourage you to read ahead to the poem "Alzeheimer's." I'm curious as to what connections you might find among that poem, this one you wrote, and "Stop all the clocks." Exploring how people react to death might be an interesting topic for one of our upcoming projects!
I too liked your poem. I know what it is like to be sitting in a nursing home and knowing what has happened and that nothing is going to stop just because something bad happened to you. I like the repetition of the word same.After a tragedy nothing is the same and yet the world expects it to be. Nicely done.
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