Alejandra Yanez Eng 1B Blog

Past Light by Pimone Triplett

 Within reach of sex but not yet, I remember, a few stars 
          freckling the vacancies 
past the yard’s blown flood beams and father’s single 
          sycamore. Expert amateur, 
I thought myself, aged thirteen, rabid for facts and trying 
          to have a mind for 
what each light was. This I knew: arrivals of gaseous crackups 
          wholly unlike us, and not 
pinpricks, nor quaint connect-the-dots, nor tiny stabs of will. 
          Sky’s Zenith, Lyra, The Great, The Small Bear. 
Hopes rose. It was before the boys and window escapes,
          before breakup seeped 
into the house like bad water. I loved stories
          of staying in place.
In the one about the ancient astronomer 
          on the day of eclipse,
after he’d gazed his naked sight away,
          he thought he saw the sun giving birth 
to itself and scrawled, half blind, in a notebook, 
          as if wood fought back
to eat the fire. Meanwhile, our lawn sparked 
          with mother’s rake tines upraised,
sound of door slam and squabble inside, squeal 
          of brakes rounding 
out the drive. And if I wanted one clean,
          one lesser loyalty, wishing
so hard on that old onlooker?
          I could see him at full kneel
in dirt unflinching, begging the above to smote what’s bulk,
          the words arcing slowly up, 
saying, burn me all to star, o fathers.
          I understood nothing of their pain.
Already, close to home, the sycamore leaves in full 
          heat looked edgeless,
each dark on dark blurring the shapes 
          as if we were all dropped through: 

Zenith, Lyra, The Greater, The Lesser, The True.

     
         The person that I send my poem to was my friend Eric. First of all he was surprised and thrown off as to why I send him a poem. The reason I send him a poem is because he loves expressing himself through poetry and if anyone was going to understand this particular poem it would be him. He thanked me and told me that "after reading this poem my reaction was that  expressing  admiration toward nature and self identity is key to being a stand up person, this was a very deep and beautiful poem!!!:) He said that this poem is helpful in being free to be yourself without being afraid about what others are going to say. Eric said, "self identity is something that a lot of people struggle against and this poem is helpful into explaining self identity".  When I met up with him after class he gave a hug and thanked me for sending him the poem. His reaction was a good one, I was expecting him to maybe be a little weird out that I send him a poem, but I knew he would understand the poem better than I would.