a poem that made me exclaim "oh shit" {poetry thursday}

one great thing about poetry thursday is that you can post whatever the heck you want about poetry on a thursday and still be "participating."

another great thing about poetry thursday is that it invites both poets and readers of poetry to celebrate poetry. so both can participate with ease and enjoy themselves.

today, i come here as a lover of poetry. as a reader of poetry. as reading poetry is what got me here to poetry world in the first place.

and i want to share with you a poem by sharon olds that caused me to exclaim "oh shit" when i finished reading it...i might have even exclaimed it as i read it.

it resonates in that "oh shit" kind of way. in an "i don't exactly want to admit that i know this feeling because i don't want my parents to read this and think i feel exactly like this but what kid from a household where the parents are divorced and know that their parents lives might have in some way been better had they not married and...does not feel this way?" kind of way.

this poem...well...it says it all in a few lines. all that might be said in 20 counseling sessions or one intense moment if someone was ill or what one might say in a heated moment that would be interpreted in all the wrong ways...it says all of it.

this poem is why i love poetry. this poem is why i believe we all must tell our stories over and over again. this poem is why i believe that we should never stop telling our stories even when people might not want to hear us.

i hope you will take the time to go and read I Go Back to May 1937 by Sharon Olds.

(happy poetry thursday...
love, liz)