Ixora Press

Confession is the first poem of the first section (Love) of my book Reflections on Love, Life & Loss.

It’s dedicated to someone, anyone or everyone who has ever been a stalwart presence in one’s life. It is neither romantic nor platonic and yet, it can be both depending on who is the recipient of the sentiments.

The lines:

“You

Wrap my soul like fragile glass

Protecting it from my shame

Hiding it from deeds of the past

Shielding it from blame.”

These lines from the third verse speak clearly of a relationship where the recipient of the confession is supportive and gentle in the poet’s moments of weakness and shame. We live in a world where (to) shame (verb) is a sharpened knife used by many for inflicting wounds upon others who do not fit our perceptions. Shame (noun) is the poison that slowly eats us alive.

Each verse begins with ‘You’ on a line by itself indicating that the speaker is addressing their person directly. The confession is face to face. It is an acknowledgement of the impact the individual has had on the poet’s life.

The verses denote gratitude as well, though without the use of explicit words of gratitude, i.e. thank you, thankful, grateful, grace, appreciate etc. One can just feel the emotion of gratitude towards the person who has been there for the poet through thick and thin.

At the end, in the final verse, the poet, though bruised and embattled by the difficulties of her life (the tempests), now has enough strength to move on from the shelter and calm of her friend’s/lover’s/sister’s/parent’s/pet’s presence and slowly make her way to her salvation.

(Final verse)

“You

Saved the worrying fool that I am

And sheltered me from devastation

Turning my tempests to an even calm

As I crawl towards my salvation”

There are many who are religious or spiritual and may read this poem as a prayer of sorts and they are welcome to do so as this poem underscores human emotion when faced with kindness and goodness during turbulent times.

Even though I am spiritual, I prefer to see its meaning to be leaning more towards life’s trials and tribulations and the people who are there with us, never judging the screw ups, offering encouragement to either try again or rework the plans and go again. They’re the ones who see us drowning and throw us a line. They’re the ones who are still there at the finish line even when the race is done and everyone has gone home because they have faith that you’ll get to the end even though you’ll be dead last and limping but it doesn’t matter because you’re running your own race on your own time and they recognize that what everyone else does is irrelevant to who YOU are – and they love you for that.

I hope you enjoyed the two excerpts of “Confession” and my analysis of it and the fact that I’ve been referring to myself in the third person since I am the poet in question. Yup, I ‘third-personed’ myself.

I wish I could have put the entire poem here but with AI programmers scraping the internet for text to be used for AI training, I have a fear of someone taking the whole poem and claiming it as their own and copyright laws are as weak as a dried straw bridge over rushing water. They do very little to protect the work of authors, poets, artists, photographers etc. Of course, if you have a lot of money or are already famous and can hire a lawyer versed in copyright laws, you can fight them. If not, you’re shit out of luck. It’s hard to fight and even if you do win because you have proof of being the original creator, there are no consequences for the thief and nothing to really deter them from doing it again.

That’s the end of my post analysis rant.

I hope you enjoy this blog. All the best until my next post.

Adios.