kevin hamilton Sep 2018
breathing altar
true death and restless spirits
i remember all of their names
like they were mine
and the charity of cold
chimes forever
in a sea of saltkicked down the cemetery gate
and kissed the ground
forgive me now
for the pain i caused
that night, canis minor wept
and all was dust
on the acropolis of troy
i remember all of their names
like they were mine
and the charity of cold
chimes forever
in a sea of saltkicked down the cemetery gate
and kissed the ground
forgive me now
for the pain i caused
that night, canis minor wept
and all was dust
on the acropolis of troy
i am the one
who fell from dark
into an even greater void
I found this poem to be very interesting because of the word and punctuation choice. The author decided to ignore all capitalization and punctuation rules, with the exception of occasional commas. I really like this stylistic choice! It doesn’t tell you when a sentence ends, but the phrasing tells you when to take a breath. For me, it takes away the focus from grammar rules and really lets you engage in the poem.
The meaning behind the poem is also something worth examining. It tells a story of grief and betrayal. I noticed that in the first paragraph, you don’t really get any of the depressing feel. But the moment the graveyard is mentioned, the poem takes a sad turn. The change in attitude is really interesting as you don’t expect to be brought down so much.
I’ll definitely be using the idea of a mood change in my future writing. You start by reading one thing, but leave off with a feeling you never thought you’d get.
thanks for sharing a poem with me! refreshing change! thoughtful comments.