It has been quite some time since I have visited my poetry. Normally I would dig into my old journals dating back to 1975, and find something from another time … when my heart and soul were in another place.
Today I would like to share something new, a poem I want to use at the beginning of a novella about a woman who feels trapped within herself.
Free me …
She speaks to me in waking hours
In dreams shrouded in a veil of darkness
Trapped in my soul
She is the one who struggles to be free
The walls errected long ago
Confine her
The invisible bars
Separate her
Break down the door
Loosen the ancient lock
Rusted with old needs
Free me and we will fly
I hear her in the caverns
Of my mind
Her mornful song beckons
Through a din of morning traffic
Long into the moon dreched nights
She is the one who was
The child of want
The woman of need
Who struggles to be free
Break down the door
Loosen the ancient lock
Rusted with old needs
Free me and we will fly
Free me and we will fly
fOIS In The City
fOISinTheCity 
I love the picture and the poem. Both speak to women ‘of a certain age’ or maybe just to me. 😉
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Yes Liz, this could speak to women “of a certain age” … yet in a sad way, it also speaks to women at any age who become trapped within themselves. Thanks so much 🙂
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Love the longing in this poem, Florence. I sense that in myself sometimes, yearning but not alway certain what I am yearning for. Though not nearly as poetic as your post, I blogged about this yearning yesterday at Romance & Beyond.
Talk about timing.
And, I’m hosting a double book launch this week, both on poetry, though I don’t write it myself. One week, yearning and poetry from all angles. Is the universe speaking to me?
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Sherry, I believe that when we write, the universe is speaking to us in whispers. If we do not heed their message, they often shout it out. I must see the blog at Romance & Beyond. I truly believe there is a poet in each of us 🙂
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I haven’t read poetry in years, but I enjoyed this, Florence. It was beautifully written.
Thank you.
Patti
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Thanks so much, Patti. I haven’t written new poetry is a dog and cat’s age 🙂 Sometimes the muse sings to me and I must react.
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Florence,
I LOVE this! It speaks to so many women of today, and would have worked just as well centuries ago.
Wonderful!
Christi Corbett
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You know Christi, I truly believe that as far back as Sappho, women have yearned to express these feelings trapped within them. I am so glad you liked it 🙂
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And do you free her when you write? I would say that writing is when I free this voice in “the caverns of my mind”. This is a beautiful piece.
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Brinda, we all free her when we write. It is the solitary joy of stringing words together that captures us and will not let us rest until the work is done 🙂
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The imagery and longing in this poem is beautiful, Florence. I love it! 🙂
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I am glad you enjoyed this, Sheila. I believe she is all of us 🙂
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I love it. Definitely use it at the beginning. You expressed that feeling really well.
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From my gentle poet, Donna, that is a wonderful compliment. I am pleased that she reached out to you 🙂
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This is lovely! I haven’t read poetry since school, honestly , but I really like this. Can certainly relate to it too!
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Thank you so much, Adrienne. I do not often revisit my poetry and most of what I do post here are from the “old” days. I needed something new for the opening of the novella and got caught up in the moment. Glad you enjoy and “she” reaches out to many of us 🙂
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I love it. And it brought to mind a time in my life when I also wrote a lot of poetry. Perhaps because my life was in tatters about my feet and I struggle to create the person I’d become. That time was heart-wrenching but also exciting,
Thank you for sharing your poem and reminding me of that time.
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That is exactly what I believe the true poet does (myself not nec. included in that category) … I needed to communicate those times when a life is in tatters and the poetry gave me the freedom to write to her soul 🙂 Thanks Casey, I enjoy sharing these smaller pieces of myself.
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“Trapped within herself” –haven’t we all felt that way at times? What an emotional tug this poem has. Makes us want to fly, too. What a great way to meet your character–through a flood of emotion like this. She must be very much alive to you. That’s really going to spur writing the novella.
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Yes Anne, I do think many of us feel that way sometimes. I wanted to set the tone for the novella and hoped that this would do that for me. Thanks 🙂
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