Answering in Lyrical Sighs.

Published on by Tosha Michelle

image

You don’t understand
my obsession with words,
with pen and paper.

You scoff at my lyrical sighs,
my iambic heartbeat,
my free verse of thought.

You plug your ears
as I read a Shakespearean
sonnet You don’t understand:
lilac dreams, aster stars,
or the need for a backstory.

There’s no money in poetry, you say.
You can’t fathom getting paid
in the sighs of the wind,
in quiet time, in a cathartic release.

You don’t understand
how writing saves me,
how it makes me strong.
This is where I reside best.

I’ll never get the hang of
your card game of monotony.
I’m over middle management.

I’m happy to live
in what you would call
my frivolous obsessions.

I don’t want to be
underwhelmed and uninspired,
somewhere between over the hill,
and the grass is never greener.

You can be the door slamming.
The late hours, the keeping up.
Throw your money at the wall
and call it success.

I’ll sit here with my pen and paper,
listening to the wind,
through the pine trees
releasing the hurricane
beneath my fingers,
and write a poem
about something
you’ll never understand.

-Tosha Michelle

Advertisement

58 thoughts on “Answering in Lyrical Sighs.”

  2. A scathing ode to people who don’t understand the creative drive. I was watching a documentary on Elvis Costello, and in it he said (paraphrasing) That his dad was an entertainer, but he (Elvis) wanted to be an artist. I love the distinction.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  8. I thought I would cut and paste my favorite parts of this poem here, but I think you already did that by pasting this in the first place. Some of those stanzas…no, most of those stanzas are so dripping with truth that I can’t pick any of them as favorites. Just breathtaking, Tosha. Truly magnificent. ❤

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  11. Many have said most of it so rightly in the comments above and in the same tone of your poem. I totally relate with this too and I actually had such a conversation with someone a while ago. Your poem is deeply moving for writers and will have to resonate with them. It is also challenging for those who do not understand why people write and perhaps if they read it, they would get an inkling of how fulfilling for the soul it is to write and express oneself, release what is there to release and revel in what is revealed. A great write as usual Tosha. Absolutely love it! xoxo

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  16. Pingback: Answering in Lyrical Sighs. | Love Lyricism

  18. Well said that lady!!
    I get this from so many.
    My Pop, to be fair to him, does ask “how’s that writing thing going?”
    The rest just look at me like I’ve got an extra ear and three more eyes than they do!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s