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Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Breath

I experimented with writing poetry for my Intro to Poetry class this semester.  I needed to imitate a specific poetic device, and I chose the way that E. E. Cummings uses long and short lines create dynamics in his poems, and irregular line breaks to cause a jarring effect on the reader.  I chose to also use almost no punctuation, as he does in many of his poems, to create a kind of breathless, run on feeling.  I'll post more explanation and reflection later, but here's the poem. 


Breath

By Jessica Varvil

just
give me
a moment
to catch my

i need to do everything
i can to make sure that nothing is left
too much has been put off now it needs to be done and i don’t have time
crushes and pulls me from every direction what needs to be should have been still may be

time though i don’t know
why i thought there would be check it again
my heart is racing
is that bad
my sister would always
ask me that when we were young
and i would lie and laugh but theres nothing
funny in thinking you’re dying
like i do when i can feel
my lungs pressed in from every side
and struggle to draw it in when i know that
the battle is inside my mind not my body but that doesn’t
make it better just harder

finally a deep long rattling that fills lungs with hope and air but is a desperate war for control
over my own mind and body i wish i’d prepared more maybe if i’d done
more i wouldn’t feel this way now but i didn’t and i can’t
but i can now i can win against it 
i just need to
it’s gone
i have to work again to 
get it back i need it to be calm and 
to finish everything check another item off
the list of never-ending tasks that make up a life
and make the difference between success and failure to
achieve anything to look back and regret every wasted moment and
wonder if your life meant anything at all of if it would have if you had just
been able to finish more do more be more for everyone would they love you more

I took a deep breath.

6 comments:

  1. Wow Jessy! So good made me want to do it as well. Good timing too!

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  2. Wow Jessy! So good made me want to do it as well. Good timing too!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! We could all stand to take a deep breath sometimes! :)

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  3. Very nice, kiddo-- I think you captured the sentiment exceptionally well!

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  4. Stop being an amazingly talented person, jess! and wow, you just perfectly described how I feel......
    (This is Laura, idk if that'll be clear from what name it will say ;p)

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