Brother
In Your Bones, Poem 6
“…you stoke the fire as you stoke your resentment and hold it around your heart deep into the night…”
The inspiration for this poem…
Let’s talk about brothers, or those who are like brothers or sisters to us. Their version of the exact same experience can be similar or the complete opposite of ours. Trying to put ourselves in their place can be familiar, comforting, and/or traumatic. It can serve to bridge the gap between us or at least give us another point of view.
This poem was my attempt to see things from one of my big brother’s point of view. Even though Ed passed away a few short years ago, he was a hero. For all his shortcomings he had something I did not, a sense of power. Although that took him away from our home when I was 11 and he was only 16, I was always trying to get a glimpse of the world he saw: A place where you could freely express yourself, where you could live your life in full view of those around you even if you were holding none of the cards. While Ed did read this poem, he never directly commented on it. What he did do was give me the thumbs up on the whole collection found in In Your Bones. Although I would have loved to have more of a response I believe he gave all he could because at some point he lost that feeling of being powerful. Yet, I feel lucky to have watched and learned from him and to have gotten his green light for gathering together my own courage. Thanks forever, Ed!
Writing/Meditation Prompts:
Take one experience in your life and give it a round robin view based on all the significant people who experienced it with you. Could you draw out all the POVs in a circle around the issue?! What would happen if you took on someone else’s viewpoint of that experience?
Write a letter or a poem to a significant person trying to capture their view, or explain your own.
How would you try and persuade someone close to you to take on your point of view?
Who is your hero/heroine and why? How have they affected your life?
Are you willing to share your writing with that significant person, if you are lucky enough for that to be possible? Are you brave enough to ask them for a response?