[Revised Title in Process]

Overcome with pining
is the woman
who bends to touch rose-colored,
woolly blankets,

and hugs them to her chest.
In a dark room she minds
a battered white 
rocking chair,

drawing hearts on the wall
with fingertips
forgotten and out of place,
when they once veiled a warm hand.

She knows now
boxes of teddy bears and ornaments
won't heal a house
of open wounds and tears.

Comments & reviews · 4
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User avatar
Adnamarine
Review

This is lovely, and simple, and sad. I appreciate that it's not overbearing or melodramatic. I like the concrete images you give the reader. It's very easy to visualize the actions of the woman, and her actions do more to tell us how she is feeling than if you had described her feelings and thoughts in detail. It isn't very deep, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. It depends on your own intention for the piece.

My first note is about your use of semi-colons. Sometimes people say this is small, but punctuation and other formatting choices are never small in poetry. Remember that semi-colons are a full break, and grammatically they are intended to separate two independent clauses. The first time you use it, a comma would work better because you use the word "and" after the semi-colon, and the following line is not independent of the rest of the sentence.
The second time you use it there is a similar issue; the following line could not stand as its own sentence. (Notice how I used it there. When you use a semi-colon, you should be able to replace it with a period with no problem.) If you rephrased it to something like, "once they veiled a warm hand" then it would work, but I don't see any particular reason to use the semi-colon as opposed to a comma.

With that same line ("when they once veiled a warm hand), I don't know what the word "they" is referring to. The reference is a little vague. Is it talking about the fingertips? The wall? The hearts? It doesn't make it clear what the warm hand is supposed to be, or why it was veiled...it's just a little unclear overall. I think I understand what you were trying to get at, but the image isn't as concrete as it could be.

I really like the length. It tells us just enough, without rehashing unnecessary details. But it's not too abrupt. It's a snapshot of what she is going through, which again is very "show-don't-tell," in a good way.

I'm undecided about the last line. The phrasing is a little cliche, but in this case I actually think that works. Sometimes obvious is okay, and necessary. Usually if something is "cliche" it loses meaning and impact, but here I think it makes it more relatable.
However, I don't like the title, for that same reason. The title is too obvious and cliche, and not in an impactful way. My reaction was, "Well, I've heard about nostalgia a thousand times." It doesn't tell us anything unique about this piece. I think the piece itself is unique, but the title doesn't do it justice.

Overall, lovely. Well done.

thanks! I think i was tired when I wrote this and messed up with those semicolons :)

this work is slightly confusing. i am really confused i mean- what is the state of this woman, who is she, is she a mother whose child passed out or an abandoned loving wife...
well by the teddy bear that you used i go with the first, then again what is it with pinning a blanket. does this symbolize pain and penance . she is certainly devastated and desires love and warmth so how can her hands be warm.
pardon me if i am being too shallow to understand the depth of your work, but i would like an explanation never the less..

No problem:). If you read my response to the first review at the bottom it might explain some of your confusion

Wow...I was also slightly confused by the word 'pining' in the first line, but after reading your explanation below I have a much better understanding (: I read this poem multiple times, and each time it became clearer and clearer to me. But unlike the review below, I understood this as a poem about a mother that has lost a child and is in their room looking over the items that would have belonged to her(?) at least I assumed it was a girl due to the term 'rose-colored woolly blankets'...a color often associated with a newborn baby girl. A very touching poem, I enjoyed this a lot. You definitely know where to break off your lines to give certain words more emphasis and let the poem flow smoothly. Very nicely done!!

User avatar
Tuesday
Review

Hello CapitalMonday here for a review. I would like to say that this poem well-written since you use imagery in the beginning of the poem to show that there is an old lady sitting in an chair, holding an rosy blankets.

Nitpicks:

Overcome with pining This is confusing since what has she overcome with that has to do with something of pining. Could be a little cleared up (or maybe tell me what it means or something)

In a dark she minds Maybe change -minds to knows, since minds sounds like she minds the dark as if she is pretending it is not there or something. Knows would sound better since she knows where everything is at (or something like that)

when they once veiled a warm heart This is a little confusing to me.

Overall, this poem uses good imagery and when you think about it, the house or the old lady could symbolize life and the flaws we hold greatly to ourselves.

Farewell,
CapitalMonday

Thanks! I always appreciate a reader who digs deeper into poems :) for clarification, 'overcome with pining' means to be overcome with a sort of nostalgia, 'in a dark room she minds' "minds" meaning 'keeping watch over' or 'tending to' in a sense, and 'veiled' meaning covering or, in this case, holding a hand.
Thanks for the suggestions and I'll see what I can work out in editing!

Okay... that makes so much more sense now! Now i understand what you trying to say now.! And you are welcome :)



Why do we only rest in peace? Why don't we live in peace too?
— Alison Billet