Oh Yael, thank you...it is humbling to know that I was able to express what you were feeling...and I resonate with what you've said here...and it's only gotten more intense since you wrote your comment...grateful to you.
Rachel, this is as wonderfully artful as it is devastatingly tragic. So many of the stanzas have at least three interpretations, if not more. The dandelion can be imagined literally, or as a general metaphor/simile to express a feeling, or specifically about an indigenous people's "permission" to be in their own land. The dirty word too, the missile... I'm getting a lot of specific AND universal readings from these words.
Then, there's so much of you personally in this too: the dog, the fire, the worn heart (I immediately thought of the cover of your book)...
The last stanza makes me want to cry.
Thank you for creating and sharing this. I hope you can find some sliver of relief via this expression. Thank you so much for communicating in that way only you can, combining the words (and the enjambment! and your actions as a human being outside poetry) to convey so much more than just the words.
Mike, thank you for taking time to read deeply into my poem and share your interpretation and emotional experience with it. And thank you for sharing your heart and kind words.
Oh Rachel...your poem is wrenching...are you still in Morocco? What is it like to be there now? Or are you home? I love your work, sweetie! Keep writing, teaching, and creating community! Love, Julie
Julie, thank you so much for responding to my poem and letting me know you felt it. Yes, I am here in North Africa for the rest of the academic year on a Fulbright. I am grateful to be here. I feel safe here. Thank you for the love, I am sending love back...
Hi dear Cherise...thank you...I am sending so much love back to you...I am here in North Africa on the Fulbright for the full academic year...thank you for receiving my heart's transmission. Hope you are safe and well...miss you too <3
This is poignant and potent. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much. Those words mean a lot.
Beautifully said Rachel. I relate line for line, emotion for emotion.
Sylvia, thank you for taking the time to read this. I am grateful and moved to know that it was relatable for you.
Spot on. Beautiful tragic and true. I concur with these feelings.
Thank you, Shelly. I am grateful to know it hit the mark for you. <3
Thank you for expressing how I’m feeling — so few spaces where we can do this and your poetry moves me so.
Oh Yael, thank you...it is humbling to know that I was able to express what you were feeling...and I resonate with what you've said here...and it's only gotten more intense since you wrote your comment...grateful to you.
Rachel, this is as wonderfully artful as it is devastatingly tragic. So many of the stanzas have at least three interpretations, if not more. The dandelion can be imagined literally, or as a general metaphor/simile to express a feeling, or specifically about an indigenous people's "permission" to be in their own land. The dirty word too, the missile... I'm getting a lot of specific AND universal readings from these words.
Then, there's so much of you personally in this too: the dog, the fire, the worn heart (I immediately thought of the cover of your book)...
The last stanza makes me want to cry.
Thank you for creating and sharing this. I hope you can find some sliver of relief via this expression. Thank you so much for communicating in that way only you can, combining the words (and the enjambment! and your actions as a human being outside poetry) to convey so much more than just the words.
Mike, thank you for taking time to read deeply into my poem and share your interpretation and emotional experience with it. And thank you for sharing your heart and kind words.
Oh Rachel...your poem is wrenching...are you still in Morocco? What is it like to be there now? Or are you home? I love your work, sweetie! Keep writing, teaching, and creating community! Love, Julie
Julie, thank you so much for responding to my poem and letting me know you felt it. Yes, I am here in North Africa for the rest of the academic year on a Fulbright. I am grateful to be here. I feel safe here. Thank you for the love, I am sending love back...
‘Like a shelter dog
unable to come
toward the
here, boy
or trust it’...
Rachel. 🫶🏼💔😔💌 sending so much love and wondering how and where you are. Thank you for this heartache, heartbreak, gut punch. Miss you x
Hi dear Cherise...thank you...I am sending so much love back to you...I am here in North Africa on the Fulbright for the full academic year...thank you for receiving my heart's transmission. Hope you are safe and well...miss you too <3