Breaking Up

I don't know why I've carried this poem with me for so long. It seems that it's one I quote often, and it carries a lot of sentiments that I so cynically find myself agreeing with---the general one being the ones who love us hurt us.
I've had a rough past month, especially last night, and here I find myself reading it over and over again...
It's a very raw poem. Maybe that's why I like it. Maybe that's why I always come back to it.


Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Breaking Up

I fell out of love: that's our story's dull ending,
as flat as life is, as dull as the grave.
Excuse me – I'll break off the string of this love song
and smash the guitar. We have nothing to save.

The puppy is puzzled. Our furry small monster
can't decide why we complicate simple things so –
he whines at your door and I let him enter,
when he scratches at my door, you always go.

Dog, sentimental dog, you'll surely go crazy,
running from one to the other like this –
too young to conceive of an ancient idea:
it's ended, done with, over, kaput. Finis.

Get sentimental and we end up by playing
the old melodrama, "Salvation of Love".
"Forgiveness," we whisper, and hope for an echo;
but nothing returns from the silence above.

Better save love at the very beginning,
avoiding all passionate "nevers", "forevers";
we ought to have heard what the train wheels were shouting,
"Do not make promises!" Promises are levers.

We should have made note of the broken branches,
we should have looked up at the smokey sky,
warning the witless pretensions of lovers –
the greater the hope is, the greater the lie.

True kindness in love means staying quite sober,
weighing each link of the chain you must bear.
Don't promise her heaven – suggest half an acre;
not "unto death," but at least to next year.

And don't keep declaring, "I love you, I love you."
That little phrase leads a durable life –
when remembered again in some loveless hereafter,
it can sting like a hornet or stab like a knife.

So – our little dog in all his confusion
turns and returns from door to door.
I won't say "forgive me" because I have left you;
I ask pardon for one thing: I loved you before.

Motion Poems

Several months ago I posted on my blog about Todd Boss and his Motion Poems project. I checked the website today to see what sort of progress they've made and it looks like they've added a few more poems. I viewed a couple of them and enjoyed them immensely. Check it out for yourself. If you've already picked up "Yellowrocket" and read some of the poetry, then I'm certain you'll enjoy the new animated spin they add to some of the poems found in that collection. There are a few videos up for other poets as well. Enjoy!

Motion Poems

Tidal Echoes

That's the name of the literary Journal here at UAS. One of the students on campus came into our class the a few weeks ago encouraging us to submit our artwork or writing.
I've written two things in the past 3 years that I sincerely like and that I'm pretty confident in. I think I'm going to take the plunge and try to get them published in Tidal Echoes. I need to revise my creative non-fiction story, but that shouldn't take too long. The other piece I'm thinking about submitting is the poem I posted not too long ago called "Under the Weather". I know that I don't have a big following on my blog, but if you happen upon the poem let me know if you have any feed back. After all, I do not consider myself a poet by any means. Hell, maybe I'll actually take a few pictures in my photography class that I really like and I'll submit those too. I'm bound to get published if I submit to more than one genre, right?
Maybe not, but it's worth a try!