Young Writers Society

Hi mothbroth! I always love your poetry and know this poem is a heavier one from the quick skim I did before rereading it today, so I hope this review can do your work justice.

One of the first things I noticed about your poem was how you wrote several lines within parentheses in each stanza. It was almost like you were having a dialogue with yourself, and I love how much that captures the reflective tone of this poem. It also was a good way of providing context to the reader, though I like thinking of it more in the first way than in the second.

As for the imagery you used in this poem, describing yourself as a living ghost is such a perfect way of describing your relationship with your past. Ghosts are stuck between life and death; the past and the present. You feel like you want to move on (as shown in the last stanza when you mention moving as soon as you could) but also can't escape your past (as shown by the lines in the very first stanza where you talk about the men that still linger in your mind). This poem does an amazing job capturing the liminal sense of being you feel that you're trapped in.

I love the "I want to talk to ghosts" line, but my favorite stanza is hands down this one:

i got the ability to write
from my grandmother and the ability
to lie from my grandfather
(i never met him, but sometimes i think
i see him in myself)
he wasn’t around, so he was
dead to us. i am the same way
to my family because i will
always be single and childless.

Hi mothbroth! Popping over here just to leave a quick review on this lovely poem of yours :]

Reading through the poem, I definitely noted and enjoyed the tangible somber feeling throughout the whole thing. Starting with "my poetry has always accepted me" and ending with "i would've waited eternity" are such strong sentiments delivered so concisely. I think that's one of the things I enjoyed the most with this piece: its direct nature. There still manages to be plenty of imagery and poetic language, but the speaker talks in statements and makes everything (even the more "abstract" poetic imagery) very easy to absorb as a reader.

I really love the idea of ghosts/death - in general it's a theme that I enjoy to both reading and writing about. That being said, there's a lot of originality here. There's a nuance expressed in the idea of being the only "living ghosts" - like the speaker is almost like a walking memory of their past and the ties to their family, which they are evidently estranged from. Then there's this reference to mortality and eternity that connects beautifully to the idea of ghosts. Ghosts are "visions of the dead" but this makes them timeless and always lingering.

I have to say, I think the title is very interesting in its relation to the poem as a whole. I can see it meaning the speaker is like a "ghost" (ie not present/estranged) in their family's lives, but it's also interesting to see how the language shifts a little in the poem itself - suddenly the speaker wants to talk to ghosts/is haunted by them. It made it a little complex when trying to decipher if there was a specific intention behind what being a "ghost" meant. Is the speaker ghost-like because they've moved on from the family/past? Or does their past haunt them? Or both?

Also, the use of parentheses was cool - I'm always fascinated by punctuation incorporated in poems in creative ways, and I think having the parts of the poem you did within parentheses helped strengthen/isolate certain trains of thought well.

Sorry if this wasn't really constructive, more just a ramble of thoughts and interpretations! That being said, though, I really enjoyed this piece and it's definitely one I'd want to revisit for its powerful voice and imagery. Thanks for sharing! :]