I found my name chiseled in stone.
Etched, maybe centuries before my first breath.
With a height chart I never grew to,
A certificate I never earned, still waiting,
My name just written there,
Wasted raindrops filling the curved loops of my undeserved title,
Moss growing, waiting for me to claim my due.
I found my name carved in stone,
Jagged rock worn smooth when he’d come to rub his hands across it,
With hope,
Or regret.
He dreamed of me.
Dreamed that someday I would dream for myself,
Until then, taking the time to write my name
Someplace it would remain
Forever.
I found my name, along with every tear he cried for me,
Every dream he kept alive for me,
Every day he sacrificed that I might live.
I found my name
But I didn’t go looking for it.
The man I sold my birthright to,
He told me he’d found the strange stone.
A stele, an ancient grave marker
Except only the dream had died.
Copyright © 2016, Karen Wright
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I really like this poem of yearning and loss, of admiration for the fortitude and resolve of whoever fashioned this monument. One thing I don’t understand and perhaps its my innate obtuseness, ‘The man I sold my birthright to’,?
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In my poem, I am trying to capture regret – that I didn’t realize the value of my inheritance – until I sold the property and someone else pointed out its history. Just that now that I have learned to appreciate it, it isn’t mine anymore.
It’s a theme I’ve written a lot of poetry about: Dreams from my father
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Ah, the property angle, I got the impression it was just a stele or monument you knew of. At least I got the yearning and loss bit. It’s a really good poem, it wears those feelings well.
Oh yeah, as a New Yorker, I think you’ll appreciate this 50 word story I wrote and it’s called, It’s Complicated.
https://dermotthayes.com/2016/08/14/its-complicated/
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Haha. Great connection to my story collection. I love it 😀
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May I suggest something to you? It’s a mistake every writer makes, myself included. You use past perfect when I think the simple past tense might have more impact. ‘jagged rock, worn smooth, when he’d come…why not, he came?
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You’re probably right. I tend to make things “complicated” 😀
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Thank you. And… I just bought your book on Amazon. Tito’s Dead. I am intrigued by what I read of the plot but I also like to go into a book without too much info so I stopped reading the synopsis after a couple lines. I’ll read the novel next week and let you know what I think.
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Thank you. One’s first novel is special, even if it’s no masterpiece
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Absolutely
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