all the ghosts we keep

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all the ghosts we keep

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introductions; re-introductions
poetry is never written alone here;
one breath inhaled, exhales, and branches reach,
one hand extended, taken, and together we stand again -

for a while now, i have heard in my voice, the familiar echo
of what my great grandmother told her daughter,
and her daughter told her daughter in turn -
and somehow i managed to eavesdrop and now
you are reading along too -

and so we hold on to each other - through verse,
or rather maybe, the poem holds on to us -
and here we are again, and again, and
again... and here you are again too.

these are all the ghosts i keep;
and by "ghosts" i mean "you", and by "i"
i mean "we," because didn't you say
poetry is never written alone,
and here you are again.



^^ Cover Image / Videos from Canva.com, made with Canva.

previous napo-week thread
to be unafraid {of river drowning}
you should know i am a time traveler &
there is no season as achingly temporary as now
but i have promised to return




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contents

one: grief
two: memory
three: hope | fear
you should know i am a time traveler &
there is no season as achingly temporary as now
but i have promised to return




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Gender Female
Points 136272
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one.

i have not learned,
how many generations
it takes to wring out
grief from bones -


but i suspect
it never goes away
the unsent letter,
may drift into dust,
but it soaks into lungs -

and we breathe,
and breathe, and
grieve, and grieve -
and maybe it is
this promise to keep,

that stops us
from being
weighed down
completely.
you should know i am a time traveler &
there is no season as achingly temporary as now
but i have promised to return




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Points 136272
Reviews 1283
two.

your memory is the heirloom i keep to myself
a little too fragile to let anyone hold very long,
and so i hide you away carefully,
greedy to keep what isn't mine
until time starts to have its way;
fraying edges and fading colors,
until time has made you more gentle,
until time has made me more strong,
until i can let you be
just a memory.
you should know i am a time traveler &
there is no season as achingly temporary as now
but i have promised to return




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three.

i have been searching my whole life
for a place i can not reach by land -

and there's a certain desperation to this
mapless-journeying that keeps me awake

when i can sleep, there's a re-occurring dream i have
of becoming a bird and catching the sun -

my feathers start to burn, one by one,
and as the ash falls wordlessly into space

i realize all at once; this is not my home.
you should know i am a time traveler &
there is no season as achingly temporary as now
but i have promised to return




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Ahhhh, alliyah! I always feel like I resonate a lot with your poetry and the sense of a continuous life journey and never quite finding that final destination (yet). I really liked in poem three when you finished it off with:

i realize all at once; this is not my home.


you have a really strong poetry voice and I love how you are able to continue this testimony throughout all of your poems. it reminded me a lot of the poem I reviewed of yours about ancestry. It's really refreshing, honestly, to read something that I feel such a connection to. Thanks for posting your poems and making YWS a better place :D <33
Who's to say that my light is better than your darkness? Who's to say death is better than your darkness? Who am I to say?

Was AilahEvelynMae
and is now EllieMae :)



Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.
— Brené Brown