Killing Jar

the only way around it

is to seal myself inside the killing jar --

cotton ball soaked in ether and mislaid words,

until my worried wings go quiet and my eyes

     my ocean eyes     heavy-lidded, see for the first time

 

because I can find them in that place,

(where after meets before) the poems that have sank

like lockless keys to the bottom of my brain,

stitched too tightly these days to just let go

 

when I transform,

my pigments will be more dynamic,

and my lines will cut sharp as scalpel blades

through the tender flesh of this life until it cracks,

     fractures like an eggshell     releasing the sun

Reviews

[Bear Girl]

'Like lockless keys to the bottom of my brain
Stitched too tightly to just let go.'

Such beautiful imagery! To me, the lockless keys are all of the 'solutions' that people throw at you when you are in that state of mind, but you just don't know what to unlock.

[J. Alfred Prufrock]

i once tried to kill myself. tried to overdose. but apparantly Flinstone vitamins are not fatal. I d get ver noxious though, and the Dinos turned my tongue purple, but that was it. I thought about slitting my writst but all I had was an electric razor. That was a long night. In my anguish I bit the ears off 74 chocolate bunnies but could not bring myself to eat their little heads. I'm sorry, this is not about me. Any way..I really enjoyed your voice here. A thoughtful well constructive piece all around. I look forward to reading more of your work.

your devoted servant
prufrock

[Troy Henson]

Many of us seem to have those days where our words just don't seem to do enough for us or our thoughts block our words from coming out.
There are times where I focus on a great write I have produced and attempt to out do myself and suffer from sever writers block.

Regards
Troy

[Robert L. Franklin]

I really enjoy the way you manipulate words. Your use of metaphor is top-notch.

[Joyce S. Greene]

A very creative way of addressing Writer's Block, Sarah. Your images were engaging and striking. I liked the last stanza very much - I could see you coming out of your shell, creativity and talent flashing, ready to write again.

[Jordan Bryant]

This is beautiful. I love the opening stanza, it really grips you and pulls you in. You have a very comfortable relationship with words and it shows.

[waif]

Always just enjoy your use of language. I often feel uncomfortable when I try to work in sentences or long thoughts in my own poems, so appreciate that way you manage that so nicely. I like that this is both kind of dark but also feels like being on the cusp of letting go of some negative thing holding the narrator back. Some of the imagery is quite arresting. Nice work, as ever.

[Master K-tops]

Eventhough my interpretation seems to be a lot different from others,I still think the poem is excellent,just amazing. When I saw this read request,I immediately stopped what I was doing because I knew I was in for a treat(trust me,I never put a Lana Del Rey song on pause for ANYTHING!!! LOL!) and as it turns out,I wasn't disappointed! I think that's the beauty of literature,you have an idea in mind and when you put it down,readers seem to understand it better and even pick up lessons which you had obliviously penned. I see this poem from two angles,either way,the poem is magnificient and just....really great!

[Chandradhish Ghosh]

Another great work...
"when I transform,
my pigments will be more dynamic,
and my lines will cut sharp as scalpel blades
through the tender flesh of this life until it cracks,
fractures like an eggshell releasing the sun"
my favourite lines!

[icelandicblue]

I felt like this was healing and transforming through transcendence. I was especially struck by ocean eyes seeing for the first time. The killing jar appeared to me to be a cocoon where you metamorphized into something more than you had been. The sun at the end was the release of a being of pure energy; a higher form of existence was now attained.