Hey there! Plume here, with a review!
I enjoyed this poem a lot! I think you did a really nice job of using an extended metaphor to describe the relationship between the speaker and someone who likely supported them for a while but then grew to be more independent. You conveyed the complex feelings of simultaneous pride and almost melancholy wistfulness that comes with growing apart from someone. There's also this uncertainty/anxiety on the part of the speaker, which I also quite enjoyed; it was on the more subtle side and never outwardly stated, but you made a lot of good choices to convey that feeling.
One thing I really liked was how fleshed out the metaphor was. You explored it in so many ways throughout, which made it feel super encompassing. I loved all the different mentions of plant parts, from roots to branches to leaves. You went into a lot of intricacies of the relationship through the metaphor, which was amazing. It also made the poem feel super cohesive; you didn't have any metaphors that were at odds with each other. I also just loved the image of a splint growing into a tree; it's somewhat uplifting, even in the context of this poem.
One thing I wondered about was the structure. This was definitely free verse, but the way it flowed sometimes felt a little random and repetitive. Lines like "I snapped my branches afraid to change" and "I needed everything to stay the same" essentially mean the same thing, but one of them says it so much better. I think that not explaining your metaphors out (for example, simply shortening it to "I snapped my branches" or adding something like "so they'd stay the same length") also makes them land harder, because the reader gets to more readily interact with the text. I also feel like the poem cycles a little, as well; overall, there's a lot of repetition in the narrative that doesn't necessarily function as a poetic device, but just feels slightly tired.
Specifics
You were my splint
When I was a tree
One thing I was curious about was your choice of tense in this line; when you say "I was a tree," it makes it seem like the speaker isn't a tree any more, which kind of begs the question, what is the speaker? I wasn't sure if that choice was intentional or if it just worked out that way, but it seemed to be continued throughout the poem. I wondered if it was just referring to the fact that the speaker was so concerned with things remaining the same that they disfigured themselves so much that they couldn't be considered a "tree" any more, or if they changed into something entirely new. It was just something I wondered while reading.
I grew but I grew no taller than you
the wind whispered me stories of you
So I could fall asleep in the winter
I loved these lines—I think they say so much inadvertently and have a certain cohesiveness to them that works super nicely.
Overall: nice work! I think your metaphor for changing relationships is perfectly shown through this lovely poem. I hope to read more of your work soon! Until next time!
Points: 81482
Reviews: 672
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