Kailashana

Jan 26, 2009 ⭐ View statistics (Premium feature)

Yesterday

Yesterday, I fell through time again,
I was
cutting onions on Mother's chopping board,
though I've forgotten her voice, I still see her
hands, though I think of her disapproval
I feel the love she left behind, thick as a brick,
so easy to slice through, no need for anything so
sharp as clarification on well-seasoned wood;

yesterday, I fell through sorrow again,
Erhard's daughter Esther died, a year younger than
my son, no parent should have to live longer than
their child but it happens here and there, there must
be a lesson in the stuffed animals they leave behind,
well-loved, some of the stuffing falling out, we are
not so brave when we weep, gnashing our teeth
against the harshest wind,

yesterday I would have taken an old lover to bed,
sucked dry the life of him just to feel alive for another
day, to feel this tapestry that is me, unraveling,
but I get your poem about surf and sand, apples and desire
hands across the keys of time, distance
long-legged crabs we grow new arms.

— Kailashana, Jan 26, 2009

About This Poem

About the Author

Critiques

Stella

17 years 4 months ago

This is simply stunning

This is simply stunning Kailashana. I don't even know what to say because it just leaves me sitting here in front of my screen, speechless. Your emotions dripping from every sentence yet it never becomes sentimental. 'I would have taken an old lover to bed, sucked dry the life of him to feel alive for another day' is so raw it choked me up completely. Thank you Kailashana ~Stella

Ink Dragon

17 years 4 months ago

Anna,

this one gave me the shivers. The first line alone was enough to make me want to read it again and again. Yours, ~Nina

Kailashana

17 years 4 months ago

I have a love/hate

I have a love/hate relationship with my poetry lately or I should say most of time. Life is a disaster and I keep writing to make some sense of it, knowing that I don't and can't. Joy is a rare bird.... a flower that rarely opens. Just wrote a poem from this: Bird of Paradise Joy is a rare bird a flower that rarely opens but I am intoxicated in its remembered scent, I grow wings with every breath. I guess there's hope for me after all. ~A "We have to try to get rid of the notion of time. And when you have an intense contact of love with nature or another human being, like a spark, then you understand that there is no time and that everything is eternal." Paulo Coelho

Stella

17 years 4 months ago

Anna, I’m sorry to hear

Anna, I'm sorry to hear you're feeling down. I hope you do find comfort in your writing because your poems are precious little gems. This one moved me enormously, even coming back to it now it's hard to read because it affects me so much. And there you go again, creating some beautiful lines with those thoughts spinning through your head. Take care Anna, ~Stella

youarehere

17 years 4 months ago

It is sorrowful and merciful

It is sorrowful and merciful to contemplate that the banks of rivers giving direction to the waters are responses to the tears of the rain of skys, penetrations of forces into mountains that husband the flow of waters down overland and subterranean, leaving quenched life in its wake, to pool and well for drinking. And yet, more, whose hands have carved these rivers? ------------------------- I'm sorry for your pain. I'm grateful for your art. -Michael

Kailashana

17 years 4 months ago

“I’m sorry for your

"I'm sorry for your pain. I'm grateful for your art." YES! & thank you for your poem. Who carves the rivers of silence through the arcade of fire? Who rings in the clarity of truth as it meanders through the body electric? Who is wiser? The serpent that crawls through the fissure of Etna? The owl with the ouroboros of time in its talons pf death? ~A "We have to try to get rid of the notion of time. And when you have an intense contact of love with nature or another human being, like a spark, then you understand that there is no time and that everything is eternal." Paulo Coelho

Nordic cloud

17 years 4 months ago

Joy is a rare bird

Anna oh Anna i love this little piece:- Joy is a rare bird a flower that rarely opens but I am intoxicated in its remembered scent, I grow wings with every breath. makes me think of one of Basho's haïku's:-( can't find the exact words) The butterfly dresses its wings in the perfume of the lily Will find it if you like? How privileged I feel as I strut around with my heart full of joy and my step light, my whole fit and healthy; do not think that I cannot feel pain and sorrow and am aware that I should be thankful for my happiness. I have lived long enough to have experienced many feelings both good and bad. Your poem expresses the weeping created by onions ( beautifully uncomfortable smell), then by sorrow and then your tapestry unravelling while rolling in the bed trying to find the greatest involvement with joy; at least it should be so carried out by the sensitive person. I hope the new arms you grow can reach all the keys of the piano again and play once more the beautiful sounds of your poetry. All the senses are represented. Must to go now love Ann of Norway

Kailashana

17 years 4 months ago

Ann of Norway, i think our

Ann of Norway, i think our winter is the same. ~Anna "We have to try to get rid of the notion of time. And when you have an intense contact of love with nature or another human being, like a spark, then you understand that there is no time and that everything is eternal." Paulo Coelho

barbsdad2003

17 years 4 months ago

What can I say ...

that hasn't been already? You string/necklace words and fashion lines that ... What can I say? Nothing? Nothing's not enough. Something? Something's not enough. How wonderful such as artists/Annas suffer depressive episodes---and worse!---and live to portray them so richly. You capture feelings! and do it incredibly! incredibly! well. But now I run the risk of getting carried away in my effusive plauditing. Sorry about that. What can I say? Thanx again, Chuck

Kailashana

17 years 4 months ago

Thanks Chuck for that

Thanks Chuck for that much-needed laugh. *bowing*.... "I am not worthy"... "I am not worthy"..... Smile. ~A "We have to try to get rid of the notion of time. And when you have an intense contact of love with nature or another human being, like a spark, then you understand that there is no time and that everything is eternal." Paulo Coelho

Nordic cloud

17 years 4 months ago

Winter the same

Yes Anna, I think our winter's are the same, today gave me a headache with its low grey-white cloud and heavy damp atmosphere, and not only a metaphorical one at that! From Ann of Norway

Ink Dragon

17 years 4 months ago

Annaaa,

congrats on spotlights, this piece deserves it!!! Yours, ~Nina (aka Miss Unsubtle)

Kailashana

17 years 4 months ago

Rolling on the floor,

Rolling on the floor, laughing my arse off, Nina... Sometimes we do have to spell-it-out, Ya? I love you girl. And thanks for the heads up on the spotlight, I am SOOOOOOOOOO worthy! Love to all Neopoets, I do so enjoy my time here reading your poems, having tea or coffee (sometimes on the computer). Thank you. Thank you for being *YOU*. Much love, Anna "We have to try to get rid of the notion of time. And when you have an intense contact of love with nature or another human being, like a spark, then you understand that there is no time and that everything is eternal." Paulo Coelho

Jo Latimer

17 years 4 months ago

Hummm

It's all pretty much been said, but wanted to add my 2 cents. Loved it. Jo

Kailashana

17 years 4 months ago

Will that be a check or

Will that be a check or paypal? I can use all the 2cents I can get; you know, I too, am a victim of the economy. ;-) ~A "We have to try to get rid of the notion of time. And when you have an intense contact of love with nature or another human being, like a spark, then you understand that there is no time and that everything is eternal." Paulo Coelho

prayersbyPatty

17 years 4 months ago

Anna

I enjoyed this one, congratulations on the spotlight! Well deserved. The crying and the onions brilliant. I liked the last stanza the best. Patty

Kailashana

17 years 4 months ago

Sometimes it amazes me too,

Sometimes it amazes me too, how the thread of a poem gets woven in the course of the day/night. TY Patty, I too, like the last stanza best, it's not as painful as the first 2. ~A "We have to try to get rid of the notion of time. And when you have an intense contact of love with nature or another human being, like a spark, then you understand that there is no time and that everything is eternal." Paulo Coelho

Janice Pearce

17 years 4 months ago

Yesterday

I cannot add anything to touch on your piece here that has not been said. [Janice bows] ______________________________________________________ Income-tax forms should be more realistic by allowing the taxpayer to list "Uncle Sam" as a dependent Anonymous

Kailashana

17 years 4 months ago

Anyone who can write a

Anyone who can write a triolet, etc. etc. as brilliantly as you should never bow to another. O..... ok.... just a little one. lol. TY. ~A "We have to try to get rid of the notion of time. And when you have an intense contact of love with nature or another human being, like a spark, then you understand that there is no time and that everything is eternal." Paulo Coelho

W.C.Wampler

17 years 4 months ago

Yesterday poem

K., A splendid poem, musical, sad, sad, song-like. Refrain-ish at each new verse. Very poetic in it's hope-full-ness at the end. Well done. wcw

Kailashana

17 years 4 months ago

I have several close friends

I have several close friends who are musicians/poets who say that. Sadly, I am tone deaf, is that why I can't ever hear my own music? I hear it in others' poetry. Merci beaucoup wcw, ~A "We have to try to get rid of the notion of time. And when you have an intense contact of love with nature or another human being, like a spark, then you understand that there is no time and that everything is eternal." Paulo Coelho

themoonman

17 years 4 months ago

Yesterday...

even in sadness comes forth your beauty and lust for life... As I raise my cup of confidence I salute another's painful thoughts, and feel.... and feel. You deliver.... thank you Anna! Richard

Kailashana

17 years 4 months ago

Moonman, your “as I raise

Moonman, your "as I raise my cup of confidence I salute another's painful thoughts, and feel... and feel." is a poem in itself or a part of a larger poem. Get thee writing! ~A p.s. Most folks don't want to touch their pain, I guess that's why we become poets, eh? "We have to try to get rid of the notion of time. And when you have an intense contact of love with nature or another human being, like a spark, then you understand that there is no time and that everything is eternal." Paulo Coelho

Race_9togo

17 years 4 months ago

How the hell did I miss this?

LOL I love the sadness, very strong, but even more the defiance against it, the acceptance of its fact, but not its inevitability. Love the first verse. I've always believed that we should cherish those ordinary everyday items that are left us by the ones we love who have gone on. Cherish them, use them, and in that using remember. I have a paperweight that belonged to my mother that I use to pin down all my unpaid bills for the month, and I cannot look at it without being reminded of her. You use this so effectively here, and then widen its scope in the last stanza to include desire as well. what a great write this is. Respectfully Jim "Laws and rules don't kill freedom: narrow-minded intolerance does" : Race

Kailashana

17 years 4 months ago

“How the hell did I miss

"How the hell did I miss this?" Very easily. The same question I have asked over and over if not for the *Spotlight*. I guess we're only human after all, eh? Sooner or later we all do what we're *meant to do*. And thank God it includes cherishing everything. So much of our lives is predicated on loving only certain parts. But we are butterflies here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkiU9uFwqmw "We have to try to get rid of the notion of time. And when you have an intense contact of love with nature or another human being, like a spark, then you understand that there is no time and that everything is eternal." Paulo Coelho

Linda Moses

17 years 4 months ago

Anna

congratulations on the spotlight. YOu deserve it.

Kailashana

17 years 4 months ago

Life is fickle, eh? Changes

Life is fickle, eh? Changes in a heartbeat.... ;-) Thanks Linda, nice to see you again. ~Anna

col albert

17 years 4 months ago

Marking time is common to

Marking time is common to all but it happens unknowingly to some of us.I think the last line, "WE GROW NEW ARMS" carries the climax of the poem.However the longing nature of illusion is highly felt.This led me to recollect the poem "Rapsody on a windy night" The only difference is that of the two one is a physical journey and the other is a mental journey.That is the art of presentation.I ADORE YOUR POETIC VISION.APPRECIATED AND HIGHLY TAKEN UP. Albert. PS. It is pictureque and dramatic Al.