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all of the rain at once.
by Steven Kenworthy
it had been 72 hours or 48 or more
we took to the shore
we took everything we''d collected on the beach that day,
we wore torn jeans, you were sensational.
la da di da, you made my heart sing like that.
"la da di da"
there were waves and sinking and ego shrinking
synthesizing and synthesizing and your eyes.
and there were times when it felt like outerspace
and maybe it was unit 402 singing back to you
but either way, it was our space created by us
and Jesus Christ, and that's beautiful isn't it. isn't it?
and at some point we decided to get out our claws
and shred each other to pieces to see maybe perhaps
what we might look like at just the red flesh and
soul with the shapes of all of our bones revealed at
once, and that is beautiful isn't it. isnÂ’t it?
and then i got all of my muscles together and prayed
with my fingers mixing and my feelings mixing and
when you channel strength as i've been trying to you
struggle to death and death maybe i'm dying but i feel so alive
for this & her & life and that is beautiful isn't it. isn't it?
and this time i sang "get my head out of this hole and into
the good things" like unselfish and fighting sin and pretending
that there are bigger things than me in this universe and to the
earth i said there is a girl who loves me so much it could
be just the thing to heal me & bring my smell and taste back.
and that is beautiful isn't it?
05/24/2008 Author's Note:
i lost my sense of smell and taste in an accident 2 years ago...oops
Posted on 05/25/2008
Copyright © 2024 Steven Kenworthy
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Anita Mac on 05/25/08 at 02:27 PM Unapologetically nonsensical, but entirely vivid and understandable... Great musical quality to this one. Love it. |
| Posted by Laurie Blum on 05/26/08 at 03:36 AM You often make me think of all the things that are possible in this life. I adore all that you offer me here. |
| Posted by Frankie Sanchez on 05/26/08 at 04:13 PM “get my head out of this hole and into the good things” & the author's note. dude. you constantly bring to the table a sense of yourself that is so powerful that it makes me as a reader aware of everything that i could be if i just stopped, if i appreciated more, if i thought less and approached the world like an emotional storm cloud. i could not have woken up to something more beautiful today. |
| Posted by Christina Bruno on 05/27/08 at 03:38 AM luck lady. and how beautiful imagery is, |
| Posted by Christina Bruno on 05/27/08 at 03:38 AM your imagery of course :) |
| Posted by Kristina Woodhill on 05/30/08 at 12:15 PM I really like how you've controlled the passion in this one - the repetition of "and that is beautiful isn’t it?" are nicely placed. The "la da di da" make me smile - I enjoyed the mix of sensations you give me here. Some really fine phrasing...
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| Posted by Kathleen Wilson on 06/01/08 at 05:50 AM I love the sense of delirium and excess you have created, mirrored here, the not remembering of exactly the time passed and the wish for "all the rain at once". There was a composer who when asked- does that chord really work, will it hold for the future as being sound?- he decided to play it over and over, and said "I'll give that chord the test of time right now!" It's that kind of experience, that kind of poem. Poetic cheers from Shanghai!-Kathabela. |
| Posted by Frankie Sanchez on 06/02/08 at 05:45 PM this might be one of the most powerful stanzas you have written to date: *and then i got all of my muscles together and prayed with my fingers mixing and my feelings mixing and when you channel strength as i’ve been trying to you struggle to death and death maybe i’m dying but i feel so alive for this & her & life and that is beautiful isn’t it. isn’t it?* (but that's just my opinion.) |
| Posted by Alison McKenzie on 06/02/08 at 06:54 PM I think there's something for everyone in this piece, at least one thing anyone can relate to. For me, it was, "and there were times when it felt like outerspace". The overall feel of it, there are bits of this in every love. Excellent! |
| Posted by Anne Engelen on 06/03/08 at 06:45 AM Amazing lyrics, I can totally lose myself in them and in the imagery.
My dad has lost his smell and taste as well, several years ago, and yet sometimes he still smells things, maybe it's the memory of smell but to him so very real. |
| Posted by David Garner on 06/03/08 at 09:18 PM beautiful |
| Posted by Melanie J Yarbrough on 06/05/08 at 04:33 PM those last three stanzas before the final line blew me away-- they are beyond any senses that have been named. this poem is sensational :) |
| Posted by Leslie Ann Eisenberg on 06/13/08 at 05:45 AM i have missed reading your work, and it's good to delve again. i always start out a fool, thinking it is irreverance, this voice you have, and then i sink in the syrupy quicksand and what a delicious drowning. calls to michael chabon. his sentences never end, and you are holding your breath, each line building and building. such is the foreplay of word play here, but with staccato push of breath, setting the stage with frenzied emotion, a giddy boy inside a strong man, vulnerable, yet daring to hope. stanza six is a real stunner, and "the shapes of all of our bones revealed at
once," a true SK classic line. love the repeated lines, very lyrical, heart=piercing, and the end, oh man, that just knocked me in the gut. a stunner for sure! more a symphony than a simple song, lots of layers to get lost in, like a kid wrapped up in curtains playing hide and go seek! ;)PK |
| Posted by Meghan Helmich on 09/29/11 at 04:14 PM I agree with all the comments already written. This is a spectacular poem. It's fleshy and tangible and painful. And beautiful. |
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