Unauthorized Autobiography

 

Unauthorized Autobiography

 

 

my autobiography began in a Sedgewick Avenue tenement

five stories start the book, Harlem tones flowing

nearby

 

an expressway of keys

busy typewriter banging away on pavement incisions

 

the cuts in cement skin

the blood coagulating at a Catholic grade school

3 blocks away

learning something about nothing of immediate consequence

a finger caught in the heavy door of an old Plymouth

both of us racing down the street screaming

of patterns in a life of trafficking thoughts

 

poetry born by single trees 

living on patches of grass

imagining poets dreaming they were 

writing Leaves of Grass and 

becoming mid-nineteenth century Walt Whitmans

 

free verse child 

unaware that in a few years

he would be moving to a new Country 

called the Midwest---

where the novel would take twists and turns

and Bronx would seem a small prologue

 

to a screenplay

written from a story

written from a chapter

of a New York boy

living out his days by his typewriter

 

still hoping those incisions might be sewn

into a new dawn,

 

but a backlog of dreams

and a rear ended Plymouth

always reject the stitches

 

and the autobiography

will never heal the scars

of life that flew by so fast

like a body jumping from the roof

 

of a 5 story apartment building

past

windows of reckoning

as he reckoned his life

might be worth two short sentences

 

in a prison of flashback film.

 

 

erin-cilberto

8/4/17

Reviews

[Lydia Shutter]

Unfortunately, I can relate to this one, Jacob. Life does fly by all too quickly and the scars we collect along the way help us learn too late how we can deal with it all. Very open and honest and ultra emotional introspection here. Lydi**

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your words, Lydi.
j.

[Phill Oz O'fee]

There's an old saying that goes - 'We get too soon old and too late smart'! Having read through your reflections twice - I looking in the mirror and said to myself - yep - know exactly what you mean! Kudos my friend - for a heartfelt share!! :-)

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for sharing how you relate to this one, Phil.
j.

[andrew mitchell]

living with changes over time, once a slum now prime real estate came to mind. yes they were apartment prisons of hard times but now dollar signs to developers.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

love your take, and insights, andrew.
thank you

j.

[Jimmy Yetts]

How do you create an unauthorized autobiography?
Refuse to sanction your own work?
Funny.
Our lives do fly by.
Dying man once blurted out, "Don't let them kid you!--it's all over with in about fifteen minutes."
Beginning to think the poor son-of-b***h wasn't exaggerating.
Brilliant poetry, Jacob, in which you are, typically, much too hard on yourself.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind review, Jimmy----
i rarely like my own stuff, usually much more in tune with the poems that inspire me to write.
j.

[Destiny_Brown]

I admire your writing style in this piece. Who were you thinking of when writing this? i'm curious to know.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you, Destiny...

i grew up there.

j.

[DIVYA]

The last two verses are such acute profound truth...Doesn't that reckoning, ever stop....I feel so sad for the poet. His life was rich in meaning, only he couldn't ever see it...Such an awesome poem!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind words, DIVYA--
j.

[Norman 223]

Snippets of life's fabric stitched together to produce a complete ensemble of experience.
An intriguing combination of images that reveal both memory and wishful thinking - a jigsaw puzzle awaiting completion, or a colourful abstraction ?
N

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your words, Norman---
j.

[θεά]

Jacob, not all pieces of writing have this raw and tangible quality to it. The struggles, the grime of living in a city and the sheer aspiration of the narrator is so well integrated in this. Really enjoyed reading this.

Best,
M.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind words, M.
j.

[Jon Roggie]

Trying to decide the musician. Maybe Cat Stevens. Placing memories.
Jon

[jacob erin-cilberto]

wasn't thinking of him when i wrote it...but he is one of my strongest inspirations...love his old music...
best album ever in my mind is Tea for the Tillerman.

thanks for the read, Jon.
j.

[Jon Roggie]

That was the one I started listening to when I read this. Funny how the songs play through our heads.
Jon

[emmajoy]

For some reason I hear this spoken to music as if trying to soften the sadness of so many of the words., These particularly, ' ..the autobiography will never heal the scars ~ of life that flew by so fast ~ like a body jumping from the roof ~ of ..' - seems to be a an invisible postscript that you still see when you lie awake thinking, remembering.

More than a snatch of the man... an offering of memories for both self and readers. Finely phrased, simply put in a way but also, so very visual..

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind review, em.
j.

[emmajoy]

You're very welcome..