“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.” - Coco Chanel
Poetry Jam this week has a theme comprising two options: “Baseball and Barriers”. I have chosen the latter, with the barriers I wrote about being walls. Walls enclose, protect, keep out, but also keep in. They can delimit, cut off, secure, imprison and separate. Walls are more than supports for a roof, as they can be free-standing and serve a purpose of isolating the thing enclosed. Walls can be built around us by others, but how often is that we knowingly and willingly build our own tall walls around ourselves? Here is my offering.
Walls
The walls around me keep standing tall,
They close in, stifling all my sighs,
Their chains keeping me in thrall.
Silence covers me with its deathly pall
Each evening as my icy heart dies,
The walls around me keep standing tall.
My lonely prison drips black, bitter gall,
As walls grow higher, obscuring skies
Their chains keeping me in thrall.
I have no other choice but to stumble, fall
As brick by brick, barriers ever higher rise;
The walls around me keep standing tall.
I feel defeated, powerless and small
As walls around me grow in size,
Their chains keeping me in thrall.
Your name without effect I call,
You left me with unanswered whys;
The walls around me keep standing tall,
Their chains keeping me in thrall.
Walls
The walls around me keep standing tall,
They close in, stifling all my sighs,
Their chains keeping me in thrall.
Silence covers me with its deathly pall
Each evening as my icy heart dies,
The walls around me keep standing tall.
My lonely prison drips black, bitter gall,
As walls grow higher, obscuring skies
Their chains keeping me in thrall.
I have no other choice but to stumble, fall
As brick by brick, barriers ever higher rise;
The walls around me keep standing tall.
I feel defeated, powerless and small
As walls around me grow in size,
Their chains keeping me in thrall.
Your name without effect I call,
You left me with unanswered whys;
The walls around me keep standing tall,
Their chains keeping me in thrall.
Amazing sense of melancholy, despair and cloying confinement in this Villanelle!
ReplyDeleteSuch a sad place to be... I speak from experience.
ReplyDeletewhen we are hurt...their leaving for instance, we can put walls up to protect ourselves...at the same time those same walls can choke us out
ReplyDeleteThe repetition of the lines contributes to the claustrophobic feeling... Excellent write.
ReplyDeleteWe do put those walls up sometimes in hopes of protecting ourselves, but then we end up in chains. And those "unanswered whys" in life and relationships can be so hard. Very relatable piece.
ReplyDeleteSad and frustrated and so closed off ... a plaintive wail against isolation and loss... sigh. Such powerful mood created by this piece and the repetition of the lines, Nicholas.
ReplyDeleteLove the desperation and that emotion of forlorn trapped hope, Walls and chains work so well, excellent.
ReplyDeleteOh, this is good! Very dark, serious, thought-provoking. I do think you are right...that oftentimes we build our own walls...and once they are in place they continue to grow higher.
ReplyDeleteA very sad and heart-wrenching poem! Loss and pain can lead us to build our own walls but hen it is so hard to break them and get back to a more desirable life.
ReplyDeleteWell done...thanks for sharing your words
ReplyDeleteA very powerful write--gave me the shivers. The repetition built the tension (and the walls..) Excellent! :-)
ReplyDeleteNow just imagine what would happen without the walls. .the same result as a minnow swimming in a shark pond..The answer is to keep the walls ( they can never be too high) and give the chosen ones the password and the rest can stay out! :)Not every invitation will be accepted but that is part of life and there is such extraordinary joy around anyway that does not involve human connection. In the people department like will always find like...God is not that mean!:)Thought provoking poem...enjoyed this one.
ReplyDeleteExcellent poem!
ReplyDelete