06-20-2017, 11:11 PM
Hello Flowerchild, welcome to the site! Here are some comments for you to consider.
Best,
Todd
(06-20-2017, 09:55 PM)Flowerchild1093 Wrote: The days play over, like records on repeat.--I like that you open with an image. This is a serviceable first line. I think you have a little redundancy in it that could be cleared up. You could cut the over and the comma. Repeat gives the same idea as over.I hope some of the comments help as you think about where to take this poem.
I lose track of the numbers, they mean nothing to me.--Track is a nice word choice, a homograph that points back to the first line making you think of record tracks.
A thousand smiles slip through my fingers;--Here's where your poem begins to slip for me. It moves from the deliberate concrete imagery in the first line to something more vague and abstract. If you had an image tied to this perhaps you can ground it, but smiles, happiness, and then dreams isn't anchored to anything and comes off with no emotional punch.
a hundred dreams of happiness linger.
I hold up the mask,--This is a bit too predictable of an image.
I live with the pain.--pain is too abstract.
I've accepted the fact
they won't remember my name.
Past memories sting,
but so does the future.--Again this train of thought is too ethereal. It needs imagery.
Death is still whispering;
now I cannot subdue her.
I was already there;--This line doesn't add much for you.
I came back from the brink.--Cliche
I stared into her eyes,
and tried hard not to blink.
I saw what you were,
not what I knew.
I looked around
destroyed by you.--Again this is all fairly vague and generic. You need to go a layer or two beneath the surface to make it connect with any emotional power.
I wish you would tell me;
what are your intentions?
Stop trying to pull me
in a hundred directions.--This feels like it exists solely for the rhyme. I'm not sure how vague intentions or vague directions amp up the tension.
My spirit is fragile,--An image would help this rather than simply making a declaration.
my heart insecure,
prodding reminders
I'll never be pure.--Again, this could imply some reasons and it's okay not to state them out but some imagery would help connect us to the person better.
Tarnished and used
you covered me in dirt,
when all I ever wanted
was for you to heal my hurt.--The meter feels a bit clunky here. I actually don't mind if you move in and out of rhyme but say this out loud and fix the areas that don't flow.
You stole every piece of me;
you took it all away,
now as I look into your eyes
you're asking me to stay.
I don't know how to say it;
I don't know how to show
that one way or another,
you'll have to let me go.
I stare at myself
and see misery pictured;
and I wonder to myself:
Would anyone miss her?
I take a deep breath
and I dream of release;
But also of all I'd miss,
and things I'd never see.
My hands are shaking
but my mind is sure.
I stare at Death's face,
and I walk through her door.--We need to be more emotionally connected to the speaker to have her suicide impact us.
Best,
Todd
The secret of poetry is cruelty.--Jon Anderson