About
Latest Poem
stdClass Object
(
    [0] => stdClass Object
        (
            [ID] => 24653
            [post_author] => 40
            [post_date] => 2024-01-18 12:39:10
            [post_date_gmt] => 2024-01-18 12:39:10
            [post_content] =>  

What are you?

 

Burning up,                   moon-faced      scar, 

tucked into the folded corners of the 6 o’clock sky. 

Little hailstorm, packaged up in a jacket 

with bleeding     roll-up sleeves.

 

            You do not belong here.

 

Not with your    soft                  hands

covered with roosting moths,

their frayed cotton wings            falling

off        you       like cobwebs.

 

Not with your face                     all scrunched-

-up, like it is jealous of how         meteors

can know both the         sky and the ground

so                                 honestly.

 

    No.               You do not belong here,

 

strung out against the wash of blues

            like a clothes wire,

  a beached plastic          cup,

               your limbs taut,           pulled into knots,

       you, clipped onto your own body with clothes pegs.

 

You cannot belong here.

   Not until you              lose

the pretence,                              promise

you will want                 to be wanted 

and picture it.                

 

    Learn to        live

like the rest of us,           a life

where the          mirror is netted

with wire,                      barbed,

where                the constellations

are shapes that make sense

that are familiar.

 

            Look at yourself.

 

     You’re kidding, right?

                        Get serious.
            [post_title] => Self-portrait as a sky that does not know you
            [post_excerpt] => 
            [post_status] => publish
            [comment_status] => closed
            [ping_status] => closed
            [post_password] => 
            [post_name] => self-portrait-as-a-sky-that-does-not-know-you
            [to_ping] => 
            [pinged] => 
            [post_modified] => 2024-01-18 12:39:20
            [post_modified_gmt] => 2024-01-18 12:39:20
            [post_content_filtered] => 
            [post_parent] => 0
            [guid] => https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/?post_type=poems&p=24653
            [menu_order] => 0
            [post_type] => poems
            [post_mime_type] => 
            [comment_count] => 0
            [filter] => raw
            [meta_data] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [wpcf-published-in] => 
                    [wpcf-date-published] => 2024
                    [wpcf-summary-description] => This poem is a winner in the Self-Portrait Challenge on Young Poets Network.
                    [wpcf-rights-information] => 
                    [wpcf-poem-award] => Winner, The Self-Portrait Challenge
                    [wpcf_pr_belongs] => 
                )

            [poet_data] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [ID] => 24662
                    [forename] => 
                    [surname] => 
                    [title] => Amelie Simon
                    [slug] => amelie-simon
                    [content] => 

Amelie is a winner of the Self-Portrait Challenge on Young Poets Network.

) ) [found_posts] => 1027 )