Have You

by Cade

Published February 1, 2007

Have you seen my love? My heart?
It ran away from home last year.
Perhaps you’ve glimpsed it from the highway,
trying to hitchhike a ride to California,

or maybe it was running naked

and giddy through dusk-heavy fields,
trailing kisses through the rows of corn.

If you see it,

would you ask it to come back?
Or would you pluck it up and take it west?
Have you seen my love?

Comments & reviews · 6
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Sohini
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Sohini commented Comment · Feb 4, 2007

grand poem.

really creative and so to the point..love it.

great theme and excellect idea!!

this is really such a fresh poem.

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Cade
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Cade commented Comment · Feb 1, 2007

Thanks for all the replies! I recently submitted this piece to the Gannon University poetry contest. :D

I definitely agree with the sentiments expressed about the last line; it is awkward. I simply couldn't come up with anything to put there and resorted to repetition.
I thought that finishing with "Or would you pluck it up and take it west?" would be strange. It didn't sound like a finish. I still didn't like having three questions right in a row there at the end.
Does anyone have suggestions for what I could put there?

Cameron and Trident - The part about taking it west was a reference to the end of the first stanza. It's trying to hitchhike to California. I did like that interpretation about expansion. I did actually write the part about going to California with Manifest Destiny, the gold rush, and East of Eden running through my head, just those things with connotations of a new life and "the grass is greener on the other side of the fence".

Thanks again!
Colleen

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Emerson
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Emerson wrote a review Review · Feb 1, 2007

I liked it, and can't really make any complaints other than I didn't like the last line. You already said it at the beginning; try to end us on a better note than one we've already heard.

It's real original. I loved the voice used for it. If that makes sense?

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Trident
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Trident commented Comment · Feb 1, 2007

Also, what is the significance of "taking it west"?


I think it refers to the U.S. expansion westward... making a new life, starting anew. But of course, I could be wrong.

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Cameron
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Cameron commented Comment · Feb 1, 2007

It ran away from home last year.


This is rather redundant and a little too blunt for my liking.

Also, what is the significance of "taking it west"? Otherwise, nice work.

Cameron

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rosethorn
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rosethorn commented Comment · Feb 1, 2007

Wow.

I loved it. It's very...authentic? I get visuals of things you don't even mention in the poem. Particularly dusty blue jeans?

The last line is kind of dropped there for me. But no complaints.

Great work!


As always,

Miss POKE



Go in fear of abstractions.
— Ezra Pound