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Photo © 2014 Jennifer
Wagner
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There are things we
lost
in the flood
or after it
in the seeping,
standing water
up past our hips.
It’s no use;
they’re gone.
Remember when
I told you
I thought
we weren’t strong
enough,
maybe we
were too damaged
to make this work?
But you
only remember me
saying
I’d stay
and let you try.
And for that
you’d give up everything,
again,
because everything
means nothing.
© 2014 Jennifer
Wagner
def means nothing in comparison...you know...and we dont need to remember the rest when we realize we have a chance....smiles...floods can be pretty devastating...
ReplyDeleteHey Bri- good to see you!
DeleteFloods are devastating...tough.
ReplyDeleteHi Ayala :) I'm using a flood as a metaphor here. Yes, they are devastating.
DeleteIrony.................everything becomes nothing, how fragile life is.
ReplyDeleteHi Vandana :) Thanks for reading.
DeleteAll relationships need that wee little bit of encouragement. Most work.
ReplyDeleteNice to see you Rajesh. :)
Delete__As you've written__ "flood as a metaphor"__ . The overwhelming problems of life can yet be conquered. This, a humble senryu echo
ReplyDeleteif we are not
everything befalls nothing
we breath
_m
Beautiful, M. I read the last line as "breathe." I think that was intended? Beautiful and true. Thank you. :)
DeleteThanks Jenn!
Delete__My >misspellink< I need to edit more closely.
Smiles! _m
Ha...no worries M...I do it way more than you ;)
DeleteI love the metaphor here. We're all damaged in one way or another but the beauty is that it still works.
ReplyDeleteI have one question. My tired/slow/dense brain can't quite make sense of the last two lines. For some reason I can't quite tie them in with the lines before that. Do you mind explaining a bit? I'm sure it's right there and that I'm just thinking too hard. :)
Sure, J. The point is that when you go through a devastating trial in a relationship it can feel like you've lost everything you had together, that maybe too much damage has been done to ever be whole again. But when faced with losing the person completely, those things mean nothing. And you'd let them all go if they would stay and build with you again.
DeleteAh, yes. Very well done. I wish I would have seen that at first but now it makes much more sense. I'm a little--how should I say it?--dense at times. :)
Deletei know exactly what you mean... and it's worth forgetting the past and be brave enough to try again...
ReplyDeleteHugs, Claudia...it can be worth it and definitely takes bravery.
Deletethis is lovely...all relationships suffer some type of trial...some more devastating than others...it is of well you have loved and love that can allow for rebuilding...still both must be on the same page...
ReplyDeleteAgreed! Thank you RMP.
DeleteI love the strength and hope in the end ~ I know what you mean about saving a relationship ~ A lovely one Jennifer ~
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Grace.
DeleteIndeed, the "big picture" can get lost in the minutia of "stuff". I truly believe that the old maxim (about adversity) - "if it doesn't break you, it makes you stronger" - applies to individuals and relationships . . . and it's true!. Good one, Jennifer!
ReplyDeleteTrue stuff, Wendy. Thank you!
DeleteThere are many things we "lose in the flood." But if we are lucky, and if we try, afterwards we find more than we ever thought we could. Love "I'd stay and let you try."
ReplyDeleteI love that you said we can "find more than we ever thought we could." Yes! Thanks J!
DeleteI love the strength and truth here Jennifer---a wonderful write!
ReplyDeleteThank you Audrey!
DeleteHey, I apologize for hijacking your comments section but I don't how else to find you since we go to the Mill Creek campus. Anyway, I've been asking a few others lately and I'm curious about you. Do you send poems out to publications to be published or just stick with blogging?
ReplyDeleteI mostly blog. I have some poems published in the books on my sidebar. I also submitted some pieces for the next dVerse book and to a magazine that comes out twice a year. Haven't heard back from them yet.
Deletein some ways, poetry seems like a series of those disaster movies we grew up on - towering inferno, poseidon adventure - where in the midst of savage chaos we somehow find our ways back to what's important, and where everything - all the accoutrements - is nothing in comparison to our relationships. (I live in drought land, myself, both figuratively and meteorologically) ~
ReplyDelete