Sunday, August 26, 2012

The Scar (Wake Up, Wake Up)

Sometimes I write poetry. This past Saturday morning I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep (this rarely happens). I got up and went to sit in silence for a little while. When I got done, I intended to go back to sleep but something in me noticed my scar and I pondered it a little while in the mirror. It ain't pretty. I laid back down but the first few lines of this poem kept trying to write itself in my head so I got up and went to work on finishing it.

There are so many things that happen when you receive a life-threatening diagnosis. I'm still wrestling with all the repercussions and evidence of the struggle appears at the oddest times. Sometimes I fear I am not yet fully awake...


The Scar (Wake Up, Wake Up)

The scar is so ugly I can only bear to look at it
In the half light between dark night
and dawn of a new day
where it becomes a metaphor:

I have been opened and rendered able
to receive. Somewhere in the distance
a siren wails and now my scar is evidence of life’s brevity
while a bird sings sweetly outside the window

reminding me to wake up and live.
How quickly, how slowly, we move from life to death;
from death to life; from mourning to morning.
It is the scar that calls me to life; to morning.

20 comments:

  1. This stirs something deep within me. It's the kind of poem that I will come back and read more than once. I especially like the line I have been opened and rendered able to receive.

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    1. Thank you, Hope. I should read it over again. I so desperately need to wake up and live...

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  2. It makes me sad. Another friend of mine went through something very traumatic that left her with scars. I call her a warrior And those are what she earned in battle.

    (((hugs)))

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    1. Thank you, Mindy. We all have our scars-it's just that some scars are more visible than others. Warrior--what a fine thing to be called!

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  3. Wow annie. I'm glad you got up and wrote that down.

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  4. Excellent.

    You pour a lot of emotion into just a few lines. This is my favorite thing about poetry. So much said with so few words.

    (I keep thinking I can hear the siren.)

    The cadence of these lines is so perfect. There is a sense of progression, even while the speaker is taking a step forward and a step back.

    You are such a thinker. I really admire that. Wish I was better at it.

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    1. Thanks, Rach. Sometimes that thinking stuff is a blessing AND a curse!

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  5. I'm with Hope: I like that line "opened and rendered able to receive". In a way, it points as well to those times, be it in the middle of the night or in the early dawn of day, when things "connect", when the mind is clear, and the message comes from somewhere deep inside us...

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    1. Thanks, Jim! It's true, it can refer to times when things "connect," no matter what time of day.

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  6. If you have to be up at a wee hour, it's good to create something this beautiful. Thank you for sharing your deep innerness. (That word is poetic license. =)

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    1. Thank you for receiving my deep innerness, desertskyquilts! (Love the new word!)

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  7. Wow..... I'm speechless. That is so beautiful. So tender and honest. I love it.

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  8. Beautiful.

    Hold on, kid. Keep walking.

    <3
    D

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    1. Thanks, D! Holding on and walking still...

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  9. Thank you very much for this awesome poem.

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  10. "The scar that calls me to life..."

    so true.

    beautiful.

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Don't just sit there staring, say something!