Poem for Isolation

~ CarolGM-Poet

to: prisoners, refugees, immigrants, aged infirm, quarantined, us.

What I need to write now

is a different sort

of poem, one that

dings like a text or better

rings like a phone

call and when you

answer it is

your best friend, brother,

child, something, someone like

that, and everything is perfectly

fine, they say, the night’s heavy

snow is melting under spring sun,

something like that happens, and

let it be a poem that

doesn’t surprise you

at the end of it

with some scary real

news or moment of existential

panic like we get

every day. No,

I will write a poem

that could be everybody’s friend, could be

a hug, a kiss, could be

the delivery of oranges,

or the neighbor’s plum trees

flowering with certainty

there will be no late frost

no kiss of death

so when I share

this poem, I will edit out

the kiss of death,

will cut it short, and the flowers

will ease into fruit in this poem

over several warm months,

and when the poem of your phone rings

it will actually be your doorbell

(you have a door and a bell in this poem)

and there will be your neighbor,

your best friend, your children,

something like that, someone,

this poem, a hug during

the time of waiting,

not a poem of longing. Why

must I always follow

the poem to there,

a sorry visit to my heart,

a shocking fact in my mind,

some science that insists

on being spoken,

that it may be a very long

time before you have a door,

or a bell or a door bell rings,

if ever, but still,

when you open the door,

let the poem of us

be surprised and wait,

cherishing the light in our faces,

then let us reach out

and touch each other’s hands

then step as close

and hold each other as close

as a clam to its shell

mud to a shoe

a cat on your lap

fish in water, carpet to floor, bird to sky, egg to nest, worm to dirt, tree to root, type to page, planet to gravity.

Then let the poem be with you

like you and it are two peas

in a pod, that is

as close as the you-to-me

you always are

wherever you are.

Let my poem touch

you till you laugh.

p.s. Peas come 6 or 8 to a pod.

The poem will have a party!

Edward Hopper, Sunday Morning, 1930

11 thoughts on “Poem for Isolation”

  4. Carol- THERE is a mouthful! I have been wanting to write something like this too. We have the time. I’ll ponder that. THANK you so much.   love  Tim

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  5. Dear one. This poem is perfect, as are you.
    PS I am on my third reading of Chained Dog Dreams and am savoring it! Of course I have my favorites but the overarching feeling is one of gratefulness. Thank you for your art. Thank you for your connection and ability to share what matters. Sending you love. Sue

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  6. hi dears, reading the poem yesterday I started to cry and cry all the way to the peas in a pod.and the party. so I visited the poem again today, twice,and still tears.the poem is too beautiful and too real, and the words, the images, the rhythm, erased all the walls that keep me going, minute to minute, day to day. so I say gracias for touching me so hard and now I will move on to wash and wipe and make cookies. kisses,ellie

    ________________________________

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    1. Oh, my dear, of course to connect is why I finally figured out how to write a poem for the days we are in, and I hope breaking open wasn’t too terrible. I was in Boulder today, pretty empty, and had to cry about it for awhile, so eerie and also so beautiful with the spring bulbs growing.
      I made ginger snaps yesterday, which don’t look quite right, but they do snap a bit. Gracias for touching me so hard back. kisses, moi

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  8. Thank you. I enjoyed this poem. It made me smile.
    Love your blooming zucchini. Never have I seen such a thing.
    My garden did well this year. It was my solace from despair and grief.

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    1. Hello, Donna,
      I wish I had come in the summer to visit you in your garden. That will happen next spring, right? I am glad the poem made you smile. I will send you my next book soon especially since it deals with grief and recovery along with a lot of other stuff (as of today it is on amazon–Bright Path Dark River).

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