Because we all want to write more poems.
Bones
Dig deep enough, you'll find bones,
This is a graveyard,
This is where I grew up.
There is a cat buried under the gooseberry bush,
A turtle next to the daffodils,
Gerbils and goldfish intertwined in roots of laurel.
There is a soccer player buried by the fence,
A drummer under the crawlspace,
College degrees in the fire pit.
The bodies of past lives decompose slowly,
The dirt becomes rich over time,
Ready to feed new growth.
Already weeds are reaching out for the sun,
The bones, dissolved to ash,
Spend their days giving up.
- Neil McKay's Shared Poems
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Comments
Michael Mayhew
February 21, 2016
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Jealous
Neil, I'm jealous.
This is the kind of poetry that I enjoy reading, bur cannot myself write - a modest number of words, suggesting entire worlds, mysteries that remain unexplained, accessible, readable, but at the same time not so simple as the surface suggests.
(my comfort zone is more narrative, built up from everyday moments)
I love especially the sudden turn from "Gerbils and goldfish intertwined in roots of laurel" at the end of the second stanza into "There is a soccer player buried by the fence" at the top of the third. Really great, engaging, unexpected and strong.
And it all adds up in the end - but not too easily, not without mystery.
Really nice.
Neil McKay
February 21, 2016
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Thanks Michael, that means a
Thanks Michael, that means a lot to me. The jealousy is mutual.
joshua mertz
February 28, 2016
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Evocative and strong...
a most impressive poem. The literal bones, the bones of past lives, the sense of giving back to the earth-- both straightforward and oblique simultaneously. I echo Mayhew: jealous!