IRiz
IRiz
Dec 12, 2018

A Frying Pan for One

Poem Body

Sometimes I feel I don't have a body
and yet just a pair of ears or wings
depending on what I focus on
listening or tumbling down the hill.

Sometimes I feel I have nobody.
And I enjoy my solitude
having one egg for breakfast
made on a small frying pan.

Salinger without a cover, the first pages
rounded and browned, lies on the table.
I drink coffee from a blue cup
and watch rain slowly freezing on
rhododendrons around my home.

I love them, the confused plants
started blooming last month.
There was a first snowstorm a week ago
but their buds keep opening showing
bright pink slightly curled insides.

I often feel like them out of context,
out of line over performer,
bright outlier under the layer of ice.

Coffee is almost over as well as
the story I picked to re-read for the morning.
I know the ending already.
But I don’t expect and I don't want
anything new from the dead.
I could re-read, re-listen, re-kiss
forever or at least while I breathe.

About This Poem

Review Request Intensity: I want the raw truth, feel free to knock me on my back

Editing Stage: Editing - rough draft

About the Author

Region, Country: Washington DC, USA

Favorite Poets: Matsuo Bashō, Sylvia Plath, Charles Bukowski, TS Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Joseph Brodsky, Boris Pasternak, DH Lawrence, Robert Frost

More from this author

Comments

Geezer

of "Nobody" and "no body" to denote a difference in perspective and the feeling of being alone and being okay with it. Books being a big part of my life; [whiling] away the time waiting for who or whatever, they are my constant companions. I enjoyed much. ~ Geezer.
.

Eumolpus

love the Salinger reference. I like the way the poem handles the detachment.

I disagree with the above comment, I do not like "no body" because a poem is meant do be read aloud, and so sounds like "nobody"...just as easy to say

Sometimes I feel I don't have a body
just a pair of eyes, ears, or wings....

then in the next stanza, "nobody" works as it should.

But the central idea and sentiment of the poem comes through. nice images.
Here I would give a sight trim...

And I enjoy my solitude
having one egg for breakfast
made on a small frying pan (don't have to repeat "for one")

Hope I'm not one of your old friends, maybe new things might come from our correspondence! Hope so!
..

IRiz

Mark, dear.
You always surprise me.
The old friends in the poem are mostly books whose authors passed away and yet even they give me a new food for thought when I reread them.
Thank you for your suggestions. I think you are right the first line may sound better as "I don't have a body". I have to sleep on it I am very inert when it is about making changes.

lovedly

only one thing common with me
I too have a single egg
being too aged