I created a full drawer of noms de plume for you today, Missy, and frankly I may never recover.
***So. Much. Fun.***
There are aliases. There are suspected heiresses. There are women in opera gloves with bolt cutters. There are maps no reputable person should unfold after midnight.
What you have created with your words, emotion and gut feelings is both heavy & profound. It is the most incredible poem I Have come across in many years.
And I must say, when I started to read your poem back up by the 4th line my spirit lifted & a smile appeared with out compunction.
Lillian, thank you. Heavy and profound are the two notes I was trying to hold at once, and you heard both of them.
The fourth line up — what we write still matters — is the line I was writing for myself the whole time. The one I needed someone to come up under and tell me was still true. To know your spirit lifted there, without compunction, is the most I could have asked of this poem.
Oh Gloria! I’ve missed seeing and reading your brilliant words. This poem struck my heart, first reading from top to bottom, with quiet despair. Then I read it again from bottom to top and my heart began to feel lighter with hope. The perspective changed although the words were the same.
Wow how much do I love this. Thank you for sharing the resistance form of your poem of despair. It’s giving trickster energy, subverting the narrative. ✨
Incidentally, the Spanish word socorro is also the word for help. 😊
Gloria! This is so beautiful. I sometimes hesitate about reading posts that contain poetry, it's my normal craving. But this. I'm so grateful that turned my almost no into a yes, let's see. Thank you. I going with the bottom-up version too. I won't give up. And, if you're free, I sent you your ticket to the Mothers & Daughters story slam this Saturday. I hope you'll come. Succor is in great supply on the virtual I manage. I can't believe you used that word, because I used it only a half hour ago, when writing to a friend who'd lost her mom, recently. I asked to her to come to the slam so we could offer succor. The universe is very powerful, indeed. Sending you love and massive appreciation for your writing. xo
Nan, this is such a gift from you. Thank you for turning your almost-no into a yes — those are exactly the peeps I write for, the ones who hesitate at the door of a poem and walk through anyway. I am so glad you walked through.
And the succor coincidence amazes me. Two of us reaching for the same word, in the same hour, to come up under people who were sinking. I rarely have used that word but it is a gem in my word-jewelry box. It came to me while writing this article, sitting inside this poem story, and I am still turning it over. The universe doing its quiet work — your phrase for it is exactly right.
I am honored you sent me a ticket to the Mothers & Daughters slam. Let me check Saturday and come back to you. If I can be there I will be, and if I cannot I will be cheering from over here.
Going with the bottom-up version with you. We will not give up.
Of course I sent you a ticket. I send you one every month since you became a supporter. I can’t wait to hear your story when you tell it in August at Sister Suffragette! Succor, not a word I use often, but always a word I loved. My Hebrew name, Nechama, means comfort, so I’m attached to words like that, and adored the distinction you pointed out to us, your readers. They are different. We’re holding each other up, that’s what we have to do, and the words that we write? They matter. They always will, to someone. And even if it’s just one person, that’s enough for me. And if my words don’t matter to anyone, that’s okay, too. Because I wrote them and they matter to me.
Let’s talk soon, I’ve been wanting to meet you, at your convenience.
Observing words and their cleverness is as good a pass time as any as we wait for our fellow citizens to wake up.
I do believe they will.
I believe Trump is a spiritual force to wake up people who lost their way. He’s definitely biblical in scope. He’s so not normal. He has to be a message—spiritual tough love.
Just today I was thinking, where’s Gloria? Glad you reversed the words rather than threw in the towel!
I agree with Karen and others. This is one of your best pieces. And I have, too, missed you. I’m not a big fan of Wayne Dyer, nor any of the Law of Attraction people anymore—too many grifters, and ones who turned out to be not at all what they professed to be; Deepak Chopra comes to mind—but I still like his saying, “If you change the things you look at, the things you look at change.” This reminds me a little of that. Thank you, Gloria—we so desperately need to hold onto hope.
Apropos of possibly nothing; however, a bit of joy: We finally adopted a cat on April 25, five days before the second anniversary of Spotty’s death. I believe Spotty sent her, or she’s channeling her. Several similar behaviors and personality traits. And, it’s just three weeks on Saturday. So her little personality will continue to come out as she decompresses. I just put up a note with photos.
Sorry I accidentally hit send. I’m not sure how to end this except both live inside me, despair and humanity. Not giving up to the easiest interpretation even when it seems like that’s what’s ‘winning’. I needed reminding and your poem and explanation gave it to me. In surrender to what feels unbearable comes something else. What has been missing. Who we are. The deepest truth. Thank you.
Wow. This is so powerful. The same words, arranged in such a way that looking at them from another direction says anorter truth. This is how life is and we always have the opportunity to see it differently with the same information. Your poem took me there without the work. We can do this always. No denying what the first or most in our face version creates; a shift and a willingness and a deep truth that the strength and ability to gain strength for what is seen and felt
Some poems leave and indelible stain in our psyche and this is most definitely one of them, I know this feeling all to well, Thanks for writing this poem, its a poem that the masses show absorb
I had never heard of reverso poems until I read yours. I admire Brian Bilston the same way and follow him on FB. It's clever acts like these poems that help insinuate thoughts and ideas into heads that might already be full of chaff. Thank you for sharing it. I too will hold onto the one read bottom up.
I missed your brain, your brilliance, your beauty.....and when you come back--------YOU COME BACK BIG!!!
Thank you, Ms. Carroll.
I created a full drawer of noms de plume for you today, Missy, and frankly I may never recover.
***So. Much. Fun.***
There are aliases. There are suspected heiresses. There are women in opera gloves with bolt cutters. There are maps no reputable person should unfold after midnight.
You are welcome. Also possibly implicated.
😺" There are women in opera gloves with bolt cutters "😹🙀😹😹 gawd how I love how you do that!
My imagination is rife with those images! LOL
What you have created with your words, emotion and gut feelings is both heavy & profound. It is the most incredible poem I Have come across in many years.
And I must say, when I started to read your poem back up by the 4th line my spirit lifted & a smile appeared with out compunction.
Lillian, thank you. Heavy and profound are the two notes I was trying to hold at once, and you heard both of them.
The fourth line up — what we write still matters — is the line I was writing for myself the whole time. The one I needed someone to come up under and tell me was still true. To know your spirit lifted there, without compunction, is the most I could have asked of this poem.
Thank you for being here.
Just brilliant, Gloria. I have been in awe of your work before, but this dazzles. If I believed in such things I would think you were otherworldly.
Oh Gloria! I’ve missed seeing and reading your brilliant words. This poem struck my heart, first reading from top to bottom, with quiet despair. Then I read it again from bottom to top and my heart began to feel lighter with hope. The perspective changed although the words were the same.
Brilliant!
Thank you so much, Annette!
Wow how much do I love this. Thank you for sharing the resistance form of your poem of despair. It’s giving trickster energy, subverting the narrative. ✨
Incidentally, the Spanish word socorro is also the word for help. 😊
Summer, I needed to know socorro. That word rolls off the tongue! And, thank you for your comments.
Gloria! This is so beautiful. I sometimes hesitate about reading posts that contain poetry, it's my normal craving. But this. I'm so grateful that turned my almost no into a yes, let's see. Thank you. I going with the bottom-up version too. I won't give up. And, if you're free, I sent you your ticket to the Mothers & Daughters story slam this Saturday. I hope you'll come. Succor is in great supply on the virtual I manage. I can't believe you used that word, because I used it only a half hour ago, when writing to a friend who'd lost her mom, recently. I asked to her to come to the slam so we could offer succor. The universe is very powerful, indeed. Sending you love and massive appreciation for your writing. xo
Nan, this is such a gift from you. Thank you for turning your almost-no into a yes — those are exactly the peeps I write for, the ones who hesitate at the door of a poem and walk through anyway. I am so glad you walked through.
And the succor coincidence amazes me. Two of us reaching for the same word, in the same hour, to come up under people who were sinking. I rarely have used that word but it is a gem in my word-jewelry box. It came to me while writing this article, sitting inside this poem story, and I am still turning it over. The universe doing its quiet work — your phrase for it is exactly right.
I am honored you sent me a ticket to the Mothers & Daughters slam. Let me check Saturday and come back to you. If I can be there I will be, and if I cannot I will be cheering from over here.
Going with the bottom-up version with you. We will not give up.
xo back.
Of course I sent you a ticket. I send you one every month since you became a supporter. I can’t wait to hear your story when you tell it in August at Sister Suffragette! Succor, not a word I use often, but always a word I loved. My Hebrew name, Nechama, means comfort, so I’m attached to words like that, and adored the distinction you pointed out to us, your readers. They are different. We’re holding each other up, that’s what we have to do, and the words that we write? They matter. They always will, to someone. And even if it’s just one person, that’s enough for me. And if my words don’t matter to anyone, that’s okay, too. Because I wrote them and they matter to me.
Let’s talk soon, I’ve been wanting to meet you, at your convenience.
xo
Thank you💕
Trying not to despair, as one day is horrible news, and another looks further. More Springs/Summers
Falls/Winters.
Seeing a future where people do not kill, or leave people to die.
Where Air is breathable, Water is drinkable.
Where people can be put in charge that do not let others die.
Where people are fed, and out of storms.
If there is a need people share from abundance.
Where people are safe.
It is a round planet.
Where people know what I do affects you, what you do affects me.
Where people
can watch their children/ grandchildren live and grow in peace.
Peace. What a lovely word.
🏞🌼🌸🦋☀️
🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷
This has to be one of your best pieces, Gloria, give me a moment to stop dropping tears🥹💦 I so appreciate your writing, and will reStack ❗🙏
Thank you, Darling Girl!!
Love this poem and the form is ingenious.
Quietly refusing to fall into the despair that will suck us in if we let it.
Observing words and their cleverness is as good a pass time as any as we wait for our fellow citizens to wake up.
I do believe they will.
I believe Trump is a spiritual force to wake up people who lost their way. He’s definitely biblical in scope. He’s so not normal. He has to be a message—spiritual tough love.
Just today I was thinking, where’s Gloria? Glad you reversed the words rather than threw in the towel!
I agree with Karen and others. This is one of your best pieces. And I have, too, missed you. I’m not a big fan of Wayne Dyer, nor any of the Law of Attraction people anymore—too many grifters, and ones who turned out to be not at all what they professed to be; Deepak Chopra comes to mind—but I still like his saying, “If you change the things you look at, the things you look at change.” This reminds me a little of that. Thank you, Gloria—we so desperately need to hold onto hope.
Apropos of possibly nothing; however, a bit of joy: We finally adopted a cat on April 25, five days before the second anniversary of Spotty’s death. I believe Spotty sent her, or she’s channeling her. Several similar behaviors and personality traits. And, it’s just three weeks on Saturday. So her little personality will continue to come out as she decompresses. I just put up a note with photos.
Sorry I accidentally hit send. I’m not sure how to end this except both live inside me, despair and humanity. Not giving up to the easiest interpretation even when it seems like that’s what’s ‘winning’. I needed reminding and your poem and explanation gave it to me. In surrender to what feels unbearable comes something else. What has been missing. Who we are. The deepest truth. Thank you.
Wow. This is so powerful. The same words, arranged in such a way that looking at them from another direction says anorter truth. This is how life is and we always have the opportunity to see it differently with the same information. Your poem took me there without the work. We can do this always. No denying what the first or most in our face version creates; a shift and a willingness and a deep truth that the strength and ability to gain strength for what is seen and felt
Powerful and inspiring.
Thank you, LindaAnn.
Some poems leave and indelible stain in our psyche and this is most definitely one of them, I know this feeling all to well, Thanks for writing this poem, its a poem that the masses show absorb
Thank you for your ingenuous prompts for the entire month of April. You challenged me and you gave me room to grow. I am grateful.
🙌🏾
I had never heard of reverso poems until I read yours. I admire Brian Bilston the same way and follow him on FB. It's clever acts like these poems that help insinuate thoughts and ideas into heads that might already be full of chaff. Thank you for sharing it. I too will hold onto the one read bottom up.