Monday, January 28, 2008

Poetry Train Monday - 34 - The Look That Passes Between Them


This is a reworked poem from my high school years. The original version is quite long. One might even say overly long. I had a look at it recently and decided a much shorter version could be picked out of it.




The Look That Passes Between Them


Even then
She chipped away
The cornerstones reduced
To so much rubble

He grabbed the hammer
The chisel
Dashed them to the ground
Screamed and spit
Grabbed her by the hair
Dragged her to the door
Kicked to smash it open

She landed upon jagged edges
The stones she'd chipped from the tower
The pain was blinding

Trembling
She rose to her feet
Her skin raw
Without the shell
He'd pried free
Still buried in a pocket

One day they'll meet again
His blue eyes no longer charged
With desperation
No shutters to keep a breeze
From tussling his hair

In his outstretched hand
A shell
In hers a polished stone


Copyright - Julia Smith - 2008

19 comments:

Jill said...

At first I thought about a caveman, then, I didn't know!

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Yeah, this is deep. Disturbing, too; you've got me wondering how you can write so calmly about violence. It always freaks me out.

It's also fragile and beautiful. And I want to know how that stone comes to be polished.

Joy Renee said...

this seems to speak of the role all relationships in our lives play: to chip off the facade of the false self and rub off the rough edges of our egos.

Anonymous said...

I saw it as relationship at its up and downs. With ragged edges as well as polished.

Anonymous said...

Great Poem !

Julia Phillips Smith said...

Susan - I wonder the same thing about myself. Often! I just wrote about that in my 7 Weird Things meme on Friday.

Anonymous said...

This is so interesting. What it's about?

Tink said...

Beautiful isn't the word perhaps, this is a deep, very good poem.

Karina said...

Wow, this is a really powerful piece. Especially if you take a moment to reread the title. It says it all, doesn't it. Wow.

Julia Phillips Smith said...

Sniz - I originally wrote this about my first boyfriend. Breaking up was my introduction to what felt, to me, like unbearable emotional pain.

But the two of us have seen each other over the years, since we share mutual friends. We remain delighted to see one another whenever we meet.

Even when I was a raw teenager I knew that the act of exposing our inner selves to each other was really the key to romantic maturity for our later lives. The shell he holds, and the polished stone she holds, are the gifts we've each given to the other, opening each other up to love in the first place.

Unknown said...

wow! I love this.

Unknown said...

Very deep, Julia. But then you are a very deep, thoughtful person. I've always enjoyed your poems. :)

Amy Ruttan said...

Oooh that is a bit dark. But I liked it. I really did. Good job dahling.

You come up with some beautiful prose.

Addicted to crafting said...

I love your poetry!!!! :) Inspiring you are girl!

:)

Danika Dinsmore said...

I hadn't seen it as physically violent, but as a metaphor for that wrenching pain we cause each other in relationships... ack, who doesn't remember that raw heartbreak of young love.

I saw the stone as a symbol of her being healed when they finally met again.

Danika Dinsmore said...

P.S. How brave of you to go looking thru your high school poetry! I don't even think I have any of mine, I probably burned it all...

Rhonda L. Jones said...

Wow, that's so sad and beautiful.

You're a Scorpio AND a Dragon? No wonder you can write so intensely! ;)

Rhonda

Annette Gallant said...

You have a gift of putting words together to form vivid images in my mind. Very impressive!

Shelley Munro said...

I loved the way you put your words together. Sad, it tugs at the feelings we've probably all had in relationships.