Angry Height


Once, you ran and again you followed what you left.
It’s your routine to look back,
To whistle moments that never happened,
That you consistently wished and hoped may happen,
But they never did and they never could,
Because the time in which they may have happened is gone.
And you never did what you dreamed you wanted to do.
This time, is only good for breathing.
You can’t abscond nothingness,
Every page you turned, every decision you rued, has tapered into a temple.

Take your regrets in a hydraulic embrace,
That clings and lingers onto your body in wounds and in scars,
Which possibly explains the shadows and meadows of your indecisiveness.
Your past explains your present,
And this is your problem—you weaved your past wrongly.
You need to be so much closer to the seasons,
Route your feet onto the highway,
Raise your chest, and wave your hands like woozy handles,
Wind down on the starry goodbye, gaze at the final jump.
So now, go to your desire. Be before the dawn.   

Published by

Watt

It's all a matter of rust and shine, to serve a distinction between to have and to have not.

43 thoughts on “Angry Height”

  1. So beautiful. The time we waste and the things we can never do when we let the time flutter by is such a powerful motivator.

    Honestly this poem made me consider not going grocery shopping and getting back to work on my projects… but I gotta eat!

    I kind of want these last lines especially on my wall to remind me to keep myself in gear:

    “Your past explains your present,
    And this is your problem—you weaved your past wrongly.
    You need to be so much closer to the seasons,
    Route your feet onto the highway,
    Raise your chest, and wave your hands like woozy handles,
    Wind down on the starry goodbye, gaze at the final jump,
    So now, go to your desire. Be before the dawn. “

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  2. Love this and in particular, ‘That you have robed in velveteen, and you have crowned with rocks.’ A kind of sonnet for humanity, most of them waste their lives, but we need them like that in an ironic way 😉

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  5. Loved it!

    S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
    A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
    Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
    Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo
    Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
    Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.

    T.S. Elliot

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  6. You have got right to the heart of a fundamental in our psyches that holds us back and takes us away from the now… and you put it with clarity and staggering beauty.

    Another wow from me. With exclamation marks, because, WOW!!!!

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  7. Wonderful, Poet.

    I like that that you have created a piece four-fifths a contemplation and one-fifth a directive to action. And not too long of a piece, and flowing from what we did once to our internal, scented-with-lavender justifications for why we did (not) do it to the care of present scars to action.

    In the contemplative section, I like the time for breathing. There is very little jumpiness: the offensive and loud letter ‘f’ occurs only twice in this section: once in the word ‘followed’ which is a musical word and not hard on the ear; and once in the word ‘for’ which connects things and has no life of its own outside the connection.

    There is no line which I cannot declaim in one breath if I were to read this poem aloud. And that is certainly like breathing.

    I like that verbs only take primary place in the directive or active last fifth of this piece. And that the first directive can be taken to link us to the seasons of the natural cycle because many of us are living far away from that and know little about that. I like to believe that the natural cycle is our natural ally.

    I like the bringing back of our focus from the stars to the decision to be made now in front of us. I like this particularly in the mouth of a poet, so loud is their reputation for only dreaming.

    I love this text, Poet. Have I already told you that it is wonderful?

    Sarah

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  12. I often struggle with metaphors, and here I find another: lungful sea. I liked it, but to fully embrace it, I need to understand it better. 🙂
    Watt, while I would appreciate it if you could share your take on it, I would welcome anyone else reading this to pitch in as well.

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  13. Now this… this, is one of your poems/prose? that hits home, gives me a bit of an ouch, a bit of an ooh, and definitely an ahhh. I feel like it’s describing limbo, as in the reader is looking at things he/she has done, that haven’t led to things being finished. It’s looking at regret, of which I tend to believe that most of us have at least a pocketful, and that doesn’t make us lacking – it makes us human. It feels like it’s looking at our inability to make choices in our pasts that will inspire a great future, “You weaved your past wrongly.” However, by offering acts of:
    You need to be so much closer to the seasons,
    Route your feet onto the highway,
    Raise your chest, and wave your hands like woozy handles…
    You offer more spiritual than practical examples of choices that can be made. This comes across as a gentle urging more than a judgment and lecturing; a heart/soul centered odyssey suggested with kind concern. Then, the final push toward being, of which is the heart for me. I believe our purpose in life is being, over doing. This is a favorite of mine.

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      1. Yes, as with others on here, you’ve written several that I consider favorites, and this one takes a place with those. Btw, I’d love to have a book or two of yours scattered around my place 🙂

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  14. “Once, you ran and again you followed what you left.
    It’s your routine to look back,
    To whistle moments that never happened,
    That you consistently wished and hoped may happen,
    But they never did and they never could, ”
    UM Watt I swear you’ve been following me around[ [kidding]] but all seriousness…I do this. Darn it and worse I entertain thoughts of things I’ve already been burned by once doing before. I’m not sure why, but I even go back to smooth waters I caused a churning in. Not sure why I do this. I spend a lot of time listening to gurus and people with sound advice, I think I glean some wisdom then boom, it’s like I forget what I learned and I look back. Oh well. Maybe I’ll forever always be this way, in that case if you know the ending could you write that please and maybe I’ll stop this madness?
    Thank you Watt. Somehow this talked some sense into my stupid head. 🙂 😛

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      1. 😂 Watt you are killing me 😂 I really thought you had some sage advice for me. That made me laugh. Thank you I’m happy to know I’m not alone in my see saw thoughts 😂

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