poem: in dampness without

poem: in dampness without

A Chapter by Marie Anzalone

this life we hold:

is not some fair trade shop-

good things will not happen

to the deserving

unless and until you make them

and yes I am pissed off

I seethe with the hidden heat

of the volcanic arc

in my backyard

and burn with the intensity

of the midday sun on rain-soaked

washes and vales.

I am the sum total of things

denied for so long I forgot to ask,

I bristle like a cat stalking its own

territory, pacing, studying

either entrance or exit.

it all gets to me today-

boys robbed of their minds

to shine shoes, beaten

for underselling manipulation

of strangers' compassion;

the calculation of an easy mark,

the invisible tattoo of a dollar sign

on the skin of my forearms;

the slat-ribbed cur with the limp

that will take her life

within weeks, wrestling garbage

from blocked storm drains

the encroaching hardpan

where majestic limbs swayed last summer;

and the stench of raw sewage

wafting through children's street games.

and we are in the good part of town.

and there is me, myself,

slant-wise and otherwise

too often, a pack of crackers,

dollop of refried beans

and sprinkling of cheese

keep one hunger at bay, like today

and nesting a sweater around my shoulders,

my congealed hands wrapped

around a hot cup of weak tea

and too much sugar,

seeking something to nourish

from within while teeth chatter

in dampness without...

gnashing in pain, and,

unbeknownst, with the greater hunger: 

once again, duped.

I am settling for being good enough, for the

one or two time f**k

but not quite for knowing;

or if knowing, never for the taking.

identified, maybe, an easy mark

in ways that rend the soul even

more deeply. disappointment

is as sour as bile in the span

of an unanswered letter

and everything I ever knew of love

I surrendered to in one,

squeezed my heart until it bled out

hot tears of saline and blood and desire

and some mix of things

I do not even recognize as mine.

stained the souls of the five it takes

to fill the space of that one

and I ask, simply, when can it really be

our turn

for any of us who give

exponentially more than we

ever thought to ask?



© 2014 Marie Anzalone


Author's Note

Marie Anzalone
some days are harder than others

My Review

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Featured Review

I am a purist. I adhere strickly and excessively to a tradition. I believe that each and every word
written and called poetry is purposeful and un-accidental. Try as a person might, you cant
really fake it. It is never an elephant following some vague instructions with a paintbrush. Or
(oh-lord) some chickens with paint on their feet running across a blank canvas. Art? no doubt,
But the intention? The determination? The resolution? Thats where poetry distances itself from
all else alleged and two-dimentional/

I hope living in central america has keep you well, or does the soul of a woman cry out where
ever she appears on this earth? Some days are harder than others....so we take some charge
of our own delinquency...or better put, our own feelings of culpability. If loneliness is the absense
of another humans touch, then I know this loneliness. And it can be a real m**********r. Poetry
is not the proof of anything, but in a crazy kind of way, an indication of everything.

tender, confessional-felt poetry here my friend.
keep writing and stay strong.

dana

Posted 9 Years Ago


4 of 4 people found this review constructive.

Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

dana, I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to read this, and leaving such a beautiful revie.. read more



Reviews

I'm going to paraphrase something the novelist John Gardner once wrote...we will all, perhaps instinctively, try to rush at some unseen enemy who threatens those or those things we hold dear, and most times when we leap at that assailant, there is nothing there, and we simply fall to the ground in some rodeo-clown pratfall--and yet, knowing full well the likely result, we do it again and again. It's a daunting and too often too sad prospect, and it's an awfully damn hard thing to draw clean lines around. This piece reflects the struggle intself and the messiness of trying to fit the whole damn fight into a box. It's sprawling, certainly, and perhaps a bit messy in spots--but, as the wise dana and Diego have said before me, it's heartfelt and truthful stuff, never resorting to shrieking or histrionics. The attempt to chronicle this battle, quixotic as it may be, is noble enough; to do it this well just that more so.

Posted 9 Years Ago


2 of 2 people found this review constructive.

Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

Thank you very much, kortas for your insightful and honest review. I wonder if we can ever, as write.. read more
Once you have loved a universe, as a universe, how could you ever go back, to simply loving stars? I see that grasp for survival here, for anything else to fill the empty spaces created, once it is known there is so much more, once you have tasted true love-- the world's greatest passion... A gorgeous poem, Marie. My heart breaks , just to read this, and those final stanzas, just burn...

Posted 9 Years Ago


2 of 2 people found this review constructive.

Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

Indeed, Horizon, and even more... once you have swallowed a universe, how then can one return to a s.. read more
I'll try to piggy back off what Dana has alluded to. That there is no loneliness like that of the soloist, someone who has turned their back on the human connection, or, has had a back turned on them. But we keep playing music, keep, listening to the music of others. I know both of these well, intimately, really. And sadly I'll admit it, I've learned to be alone, have even come to like it. In truth, some of the best things I've ever written were written under the influence of a deep, blue reverent loneliness.. I know there will be a time soon I'll come to regret it, this love, of invisibility, that has allowed me to observe, purely, and though I know its not enough to justify not participating in the act of true intimacy, whether intentionally, or unintentionally, it does give you perspective... But you have to have had at least engaged fully in the act of love before, you, have to know where to point that azimuth. You have to know those roads, traveled that high that heartache. This was a great poem, Marie, and maybe because I'm the type of writer who embraces hardship/solitude in order to come home with the poem, that I can say, without any hesitation, I know exactly the place this poem was born; and though I'm not in that place now I know I'll probably be there again, soon. And I'll write a thousand poems when I get there.



An excellent piece, Marie.

Posted 9 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

Ah, Diego... your review touches some very deep place of insecurity, and then gives me the courage t.. read more
I have found the days I am most in love are the ones with no expectation. This was beautiful, and passionate. Well done Marie.

Posted 9 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

Thank you for the thoughts and review, K. Louis.
I am a purist. I adhere strickly and excessively to a tradition. I believe that each and every word
written and called poetry is purposeful and un-accidental. Try as a person might, you cant
really fake it. It is never an elephant following some vague instructions with a paintbrush. Or
(oh-lord) some chickens with paint on their feet running across a blank canvas. Art? no doubt,
But the intention? The determination? The resolution? Thats where poetry distances itself from
all else alleged and two-dimentional/

I hope living in central america has keep you well, or does the soul of a woman cry out where
ever she appears on this earth? Some days are harder than others....so we take some charge
of our own delinquency...or better put, our own feelings of culpability. If loneliness is the absense
of another humans touch, then I know this loneliness. And it can be a real m**********r. Poetry
is not the proof of anything, but in a crazy kind of way, an indication of everything.

tender, confessional-felt poetry here my friend.
keep writing and stay strong.

dana

Posted 9 Years Ago


4 of 4 people found this review constructive.

Marie Anzalone

9 Years Ago

dana, I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to read this, and leaving such a beautiful revie.. read more

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Added on May 25, 2014
Last Updated on July 9, 2014

Peregrinating North-South Compass Points


Author

Marie Anzalone
Marie Anzalone

Xecaracoj, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala



About
Bilingual (English and Spanish) poet, essayist, novelist, grant writer, editor, and technical writer working in Central America. "A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to ta.. more..

Writing