Foreigner
In poetry, I lived
While with you I lived alone,
Y pensaba que nunca lo comprenderías
Because we didn’t speak the same language.
So I shouted with my pen
Because you just couldn’t understand me;
Lay myself bare,
Knowing full well that you wouldn’t touch me;
And waited behind transparent verses
That I realized would never attract a penetrating glance.
It’s only once I’d finally gone away
That you noticed my parting footprints on the page –
Only once you were far beyond the echo of my voice
That you heard what I was saying.
7 Comments »
Leave a comment
About
My alias comes from a favorite quote of mine by Mark Twain: ”Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
You never know quite what you’ll find here! 
-
Recent
-
Links
-
Archives
- December 2009 (1)
- November 2009 (2)
- October 2009 (2)
- July 2009 (1)
- June 2009 (1)
- March 2009 (1)
- January 2009 (2)
- December 2008 (1)
- November 2008 (4)
- October 2008 (2)
- September 2008 (2)
- August 2008 (1)
-
Categories
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
Twenty! you are around again.. nice..
maybe you will explain me the spanish part..
i can see you shouting with your pen
She saw your footprints
She heard an echo
In her heart she has found you..
to find love
is a blessing
all she wants is to thank you…
Shraddha, thank you. I am both glad — and sorry — that this one touched a chord with you.
Hi, Dhyan/fragments!
The line in Spanish says, “And I thought that you would never understand (it).” (The ex-partner who inspired this was a native speaker of Spanish, so I was playing around with the disjuncture of communication.)
i love and appreicate so much inter national, langauge, cultural realtionship. to me, they are so demending, always asking for more understanding, more relaxing, more watching of how i act, what i say, how i respond. they contain so much teaching, so many ways to grow and learn, of myself, of my culture, of my parents, of my love and feeelings, and thoughs, of life. and almost never boring.
hope you are good….
D! (or fragments any way you choose)
Yes, Dhyan, cross-cultural relationships teach us much. This poem was actually from over a year ago, and I just stumbled upon it again, so I put it out here. I had been for 3 or 4 years with a “foreigner,” and I wrote this a few months after our relationship ended. This poem is also about the fact that he used to criticize me for wanting to be a writer, laughed at the hobby. As I said, we didn’t speak the same language. Understanding is important, but be careful to respect your own boundaries when you compromise in the name of cultural sensitivity.
Very nice writing. I can empathize, touching.