Thursday, July 4, 2024

Beached

 

I don’t like feeling

like I am a shadow of myself

standing just outside the light

in the doorway.

 

But I do,

looking in at the room,

at the made bed

with too much light

falling on it now.

 

I prefer the storm against the pane,

the wind breathing

through the hollow

places ‘neath the roof’s shingles

when it’s too dark outside to see the surf

but loud enough to know it’s there.

 

All that’s over now—

the salt washed from my skin

in the last enshrouding rain.

 

My shadow’s stuck. A ghost hovering

with no reverse

and the forward light stings

like sand whipping up

the cold November coast.

 

 

© 2024 Jennifer Wagner

 

 

For What’s Going On?  Rain

6 comments:

  1. Wow, this poem has real impactm Jennifer. I, too, love the blustery storms of winter on the coast and have also felt high and dry when away from it. I love the image of the sand whipping up the cold November coast. Beautiful work. Very poignant. I so know that feeling as I lived away from the coast for seventreen landlocked years.

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  2. This is so beautifully worded, Jennifer. I can't even choose a favorite stanza. I love them all!

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  3. I love the play of light and shades here and also the 'enshrouding rain'. I also love the visuals the poem has within.

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  4. "All that’s over now—
    the salt washed from my skin
    in the last enshrouding rain."
    But the shadow! Did you leave it behind? This reminds me of how memory works in images, impressionistically, light and shadow caught in the retina of the eye.

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  5. I can feel that cold November coast - Glad i live in the South Coast of UK . Loved your poem.

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  6. This made me shiver, both from the eeriness of it and also the poignancy. I love the idea of a stubborn and mournful ghost independent of, but still influencing the speaker. Then there are the natural references, so vivid and clear. I love this.

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Thank you for your thoughts!