there is beauty in breaking

Week One of "Defining Poetry: Contest" 

Note: This poem was inspired by John Ashbery's "Meaningful Love". Ashbery is most famous for his disjunctioned syntax, bizarre sentence structure, and underlying humor in his poetry. He has been praised and criticized; his poetry has been called brilliant and meaningless. I found "Meaningful Love" baffling...I studied it for the longest time trying to figure out what it meant, and I'm still not sure I have the answer. Therefore, to model his style of writing, I simply tried taking what I thought was the main theme of his poem (heartbreak) and attempted to explain that feeling using abstract images and disjointed stanzas. My favorite line from "Meaningful Love" was

"There was no harm in loving then,
no certain good either. But love was loving servants
or bosses. No straight road issuing from it.
Leaves around the door are penciled losses.
Twenty years to fix it.
Asters bloom one way or another."

Please, enjoy the poem, and if you don't understand it, then I've achieved my goal.

_________________________________________


I rose up to meet you
(as did the road) but your eyes were not
on mine. There was a cool breeze
on the back of my neck where your
hand should have been.

The words that came from lips tumbling
shattered the glass.
Say what you want. It doesn’t change
what tomorrow brings.

The alley dark never looked so inviting-
the stench of rotting food, yesterday’s discarded
newspapers. A stray cat murmuring sympathetically.
and I was careful not to touch
anything.

Amen is what we say at the end of a prayer
when we’re asking for something
that God is not willing to give.
(Speaking of which how selfish is that?
always wanting everything to go according to His plan.)

if I wasn’t so smart,
I might have asked for you (or at least
your good looks) But the wind is whispering
this is only the beginning and
really, have I not learned my lesson?

Besides, children wish on shooting stars
and teenagers at 11:11.
We but adults know better.

I guess the East Coast needed you more than I did.

(amen.)