Usurped Emotions

Apr 25, 2023 | Poetry

Usurped Emotions

Anger is the Queen of Misrule
Until she's denied - 
Shoved aside - 
Diminished, 
Like a distressing damsel
Overcome, but not becalmed.
Impotent Rage, dark
Grief will serve 
Her only companions.
Locked in her stoic tower cell - 
Stubbornly, she swallows the key,
Eats her feelings,
Thinking their power 
Usurped. Denial 
Her warden; Contentment 
Her lady's maid.
Joy pours through open windows
Drenching cold stone
In golden sunfire.
Anger would draw the curtains,
If she could. Hang tapestries
Against the dawning light.
She smothers Hope
Lets it languish
Drowning, in a tub
Of gray and tepid water.
Persistent Joy flashes warm:
Pink, orange, and yellow roses
Cast at the Queen's bare feet
Before the purpling dusk.
Joy launches an assault - 
Demands white bedsheets;
Till Anger, laughing 
Surrenders, at last
To happy Dreams.

Unfeeling

Dammed up for half a life, 
Denied, so many salty drops 
Uncried refuse to flow. 
They called her cold - 
Unfeeling. Unaware
The faintly beating heart 
Still beat within 
Though dried up, brittle
As her mother's fragile
Skin; a parchment
Page unwritten
Waiting to be placed
Upon an empty shelf
Forgotten
As the feelings 
Of a hollow vessel.

Today’s Poet

Wislawa Szymborska

– a Polish poet, essayist, translator, and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature “for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality.”

Wisława Szymborska – Poetry – NobelPrize.org


April is National Poetry Month. This year marks its 27th year. NaPoWriMo – 30 days of writing poems – is poets’ answer to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

This coincides with the A to Z Blogging Challenge, now celebrating its 13th anniversary. Some participants choose a theme; others wing it. Doesn’t matter! The real challenge is to build a practice of writing daily. I think I stuck with it…once. You can see the list of participants – I’m sure they’d love it if you’d visit and comment on their blogs.

This month, my goal is to:

  1. Write a poem a day and share it – uncurated – here; and
  2. Highlight some poets you may be unfamiliar with.

I encourage you to click the links to read about them and their work. I plan to choose a diverse array of classical and contemporary poets – indigenous poets, Black poets, women poets, LGBTQ poets – that challenge us to see the world differently while also tapping into universal themes and emotions.

Remember, too, that comments and conversation are always welcome here. (Spammers, on the other hand, will be tossed into the moat or mocked, so before you leave an irrelevant comment or drop a link, consider that it’s fair game!)

 

Holly Jahangiri

Holly Jahangiri is the author of Trockle, illustrated by Jordan Vinyard; A Puppy, Not a Guppy, illustrated by Ryan Shaw; and the newest release: A New Leaf for Lyle, illustrated by Carrie Salazar. She draws inspiration from her family, from her own childhood adventures (some of which only happened in her overactive imagination), and from readers both young and young-at-heart. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband, J.J., whose love and encouragement make writing books twice the fun.

3 Comments

  1. Mitchell Allen

    LOL I get it: Double U. Nah, you still gotta Wing Words for the upside-down M.

    Okay, seriously, your output is awesome. I really, really like the first poem. Emotions personified. The ending reminds me of someone telling her child, “You fool. I can’t stay mad at you!”

    Cheers,

    Mitch

    • Holly Jahangiri

      ROFL!! Oooh, that would’ve been a good cheat – kind of like the year I made a poem out of L,M,N,O,P and called it a letter. (My mom said she used to think it WAS a letter, the way little kids sing the alphabet.) No, I just felt like throwing in a second one. I’m working on W – that’s today’s.

      You got it – that’s exactly what I was going for in the first poem. The way we stubbornly cling to the negative emotions, sometimes wrapping ourselves in them like a suit of armor, but despite my occasional tendency to do that, I’m really a generally happy person. I have the ability to roll my eyes at my own grumpy sulkiness – just, nobody else better dare! 😀

      The second one is a little different – my mom once confided that she was afraid she was no longer able to cry. I’ve reached that point, myself. It’s weird. Doesn’t mean we don’t feel like having a good, soul-cleansing cry – just that the well feels dry. (I know mine’s not, but damn – some days, I think it’s getting there. And I don’t know that this is a GOOD thing, though younger-me thought it sounded terrific.)

    • Holly Jahangiri

      And I did. I hope that you saw that I DID. 😉 Two killer forms – Villanelle (for V) and Sestina (for W). I’m tired now…

 


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