Saturday, July 10, 2021

Lost is a Lonely Place on a Busy Street


 Photography by Artist, Jasper James

Linking with the Sunday Muse for Muse #168

Come join us!


For a while I climbed the ladder,
not realizing I’d placed it
against the wrong house. The window
I tried to look into was a mirror.
I fell backward into the world.

-Stephen Dunn

 

I lost you before you were truly gone

Like money at the races or bullets from a fool’s gun

Some hurts are hard to recover from

 and some places just cannot be left behind

a lost little girl

that had never left home

still stands at the curb of a busy street

and hesitates to go

speaking up and walking away are harder than they look

no one ever explained that to me

I just learned it as I went

You see,  silence preaches louder than you think

Skinned up knees leave a more enduring mark

Than road signs warning, slippery when wet

Those scars join us in the journey

We carry them along

Like children too tired to walk any further

That is how we learn strength is many things

More than lifting steal and running far

Yes, I lost you before you were truly gone

Like whiskey from a cracked bottle

That always leaves a mess behind

It took me years to see how lost that truly left me

Yet to find our true direction

We must first realize we are lost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


18 comments:

  1. Dayummmmmm girl! This is brilliant. Sad, true, brave, all that. Yes.

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  2. A well observed look at the human condition, where discovery of the self is the beginning of everything else. ♥

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  3. So beautifully presents life's journey, skinned knees and all!

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  4. "Skinned up knees leave a more enduring mark / Than road signs warning, slippery when wet" -- Oooh! Oooh! That is so, so good.

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  5. A fun poem, Carrie. I like the ending but I also especially like the line " . . . learned it as I went." Most folk do that, even if they've studied and read books and watched it al on YouTube still we learn by doing most. The good and the bad.
    ..

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  6. I feel as though I slipped into the far reaches of your mind, personal and private emotions shared. Stunning, Ms. Carrie-girl.

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  7. Lostness expressed. The heart-cry of this poem.

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  8. The whiskey from the cracked bottle that always leaves a mess is such a vivid image of a feeling.

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  9. Wow, Carrie, your wisdom deepens, as does your poetry - which is the journey, my friend, as you know. We figure our journey out through our poems, which leave a trail to tell those following us what we have learned. This was wonderful to write, likely painful to live - but look at how you have bloomed!

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  10. “Like whiskey from a cracked bottle

    That always leaves a mess behind

    It took me years to see how lost that truly left me”

    Powerful.

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  11. Luv the summary in your end line

    Happy Sunday

    Much💜love

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  12. Walking away and speaking up is hard ...no one explained that to me either...Some hurt
    can never be overcome completely....Wonderful poem that many of us can relate to

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  13. What a brilliant poem! The flow and the way it walks along the heart <3

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  14. Yet to find our true direction
    We must first realize we are lost.

    Love the close Carrie! Very philosophical and very true. One can only pick the chosen direction once it is duly and correctly addressed.

    Hank

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  15. Love the take on strength: being lost is a test in itself.

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  16. Oh the lessons life bring us can be hard, but yet if we allow we grow stronger. Beautiful, brilliant writing.

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  17. Simply stunning! So many great lines combining to a powerful message. I also love the quote from Stephen Dunn

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  18. "Yes, I lost you before you were truly gone

    Like whiskey from a cracked bottle

    That always leaves a mess behind"

    Brilliant writing, Carrie, with a punch ending!

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"Our best thoughts come from others." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson