This piece is outstanding... so poignant... with a whole lot more that is left unsaid....

Oh, Ali... big hugs (tightened with prayerful hopes for all the greatest things in new beginnings)from down south... pm me if you just wanna talk and I'll get off the internet. You still have my number? I know I can't help the heartache, but I can share my knowledge that you will get through it and the sun is still shining behind the clouds and rain. loves ya girl.

I feel your pain here....hang in there! MFS

Wow! A lot of us do know these feelings and I cannot tell you enough how your images are so clearly described and your words are ever so powerful because it is so honest. Stay strong! ~JPP

it's the moments between the pain that make life bearable.

The beginning is sci-fi, the end beyond science, and throughout you've shown how every aspect of your environment envelops, is enveloped in your feelings, your view, as if it all exists to express your meaning, and articulate the emotional content of your heart. Everything becomes metaphor, nothing is outside of that feeling, from the fish to the sounds of night. And so the "isolation" expands and is community, which by your poem includes everything, including us. Not alone, but we all listen as you listen to the pulse, the "ka-clack" of your poem in your night. And in this way the sadness expands to a warmth of human poetic understanding and emotionally linked hearts, all by the effectiveness of your expression.

That opening stanza is the best I've read in a while... great piece. Dxx

Many a metaphor to bring home the point you're making. This is pithy and full of nuance.

There are times one doesn't know what to say because when the spaces between words overflow with the unsaid ... one thinks who am I to speak of the beautiful write this is, or of the vibes it exudes and how it touches ... lovelight&peace ...*m.a

Congratulations on POTD!

But if we did not have your pain, we would not have had so a work of art. Marvelous and well worth POTD! Hang in there kid, we've all been there. You will die a little inside, but you will become so much the wiser!

The opening stanza hooked me and I was involved all the way through this excellent piece.

No wonder this is at the top of the weekly favorites chart...this is a wonderful piece, so intricately woven these varied ideas all pointing to the same horizon...so much imagery and content to love, but just to offer a favorite or two, I loved: "It’s the ka-clack, ka-clack, ka-clack/ Of the freight train rolling across/ A lonely nightscape" and most especially "Just as plain as the opal stud sparkling/ From the nose on my face/ It reminds me that being alone won’t be all dark "...a pleasure to experience this poem, happy writings, peace, jewels

Wow. If any poem ever deserved to ascend to the top-rated list on this site, this is it. Powerful stuff. Your use of detail is perfect, and the emotional impact blows me away.

wonderful piece ali, fact makes fiction look blase

I'd missed this one. It is a marvel of transparent imagery. I'll say more by IM...

Rivetingly powerful piece of work Alison. Well worth the read and No. 1 spot. :o)

extremely powerful. took me to a place I didn't expect. moving word files on a flash drive without you knowing--great, precise image. wonderful.

even your pain is beautiful. :) pk

I still am saddened reading this... but I know you and I know what you are capable of sweet Ali! Ask me sometime and I will tell you.

It is unfortunate, as Nietzsche stated,
In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.
and that is depends on 'the what' they wnat to play, unfortunaelty. As in my case, I had to grow up, at 40, to find that outand change. A wonderful piece still, Alison.

Excellent