My first poem for Thursday January 16 2024 Hostages Jill Stockinger

[jill stockinger]

My first assignment for Dr. McKinney's class was to write a lyric poem.

We had discussed Love Poems, with comments being that to be "authentic" and "modern," one really can't write

a Love Poem in the old traditional manner. 

(All those sighs, the "oh, this" and "oh, that," no more "thee" and "thou," no more effusive hyperbole when describing the physical attributes of the loved one, no more "roses in cheeks" or "limpid pools of blue.")

So I tried to do a sort of "takeoff" on a Love Poem. While still KEEPING it a Love Poem. 

And before I hear "I don't understand the first 3 lines," I'll explain them here.

With in and under

standing,

you slipped past my guards

I'm playing with words here, in the manner of e e cummings.  I have the words "within" and "understanding" embedded there.

There's also the phrase "in and under," meaning that's how the loved one slipped past my "guards"–the person slipped in and under the barriers I had erected.

OK-that said, here's my poem:

Jill Stockinger

 

Hostages

 

With in and under

standing,

you slipped past

my guards,

unsettled my life.

Boundaries dissolved;

my balance unbalanced.

Our uncertainties

hinge

to hold each other up.

My thoughts

cut you into parts–

your

eyes, breasts, lips.

Your

wet openness.

I fear falling.

Where we join

is a wound

I cannot live without.

Our inner lives

stare bullets

at each other

as we grow together.