Histrionics of dying love

I. I gave you a book of my poems and in return you burned it /-/ unopened. You asked for the name of my favorite poet and learned to mimic the poetry for a girl who had never heard his name. These

II. Gestures bloom out of my body like exploding spores of the stagshorn. No one sees the future of their jagged edges
burrowing into the ground of my half-buried
heart. So much comes
to morning as nothing
more than diminishment. You say I give up
too easy. But

III. You don’t know how I write poems
over poems trying to find some words
that mean what I want to say. /-/ Your eye half blackened by a vacuum of light. /-/ Your heart some kind of vacant box. /-/ I fly in

like a moth seeking light /
and turn to powder.

Love is a hinge
a hunger - - -. A quest
in one of those old books you once
loved reading.

You knew I was always
doomed to fail.

Author's Note

2025

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I feel it is more like the subject of this poem who is doomed to fail.
Gestures say so much about the soul of a person...
the heart being a vacant box...this subject cared once...and for the speaker, feeling so diminished by the burning of her book...
Why? When he burns a book full of something he could not do in a lifetime.
I wonder if moths get this jealous....or seek something so strongly by the time they reach it they are burned up and burned out.
I just love your work.
j.

[Eilis]

Hi, Jacob. Your reviews mean a lot to me. You make me feel like I’m doing something great and I appreciate that. Jealousy does destroy or at the very least hinder one’s ability to love and see what others need. It’s hard to realize and accept that someone who was supposed to love you forever never really understood what it meant to love at all. Life teaches hard lessons. Thank you for reading my poems.

[Joli Dy]

"writing poems over poems"
I keep repeating this line. Sometimes I feel you are writing the words still trapped inside me. I love your writing so much.

[Eilis]

Hi, Joli. I imagine we do have some shared words trapped inside us. I’ve felt that reading your poems. These are difficult times. I hope you’re well. Thank you for your words.

[Pryde Foltz]

I wonder what it was like with the Shelleys. Do poets ever go good together? This poem is very interesting and full of power. Huzzah:)

[Eilis]

Thank you, Pryde!

[SkinlessFrank]

I have been disappointed in life when relationships have failed, but I have never faced the cruelty that you write about here. The diminishment of a person’s work and art goes so far beyond reason. It cuts deeply and borders on sadistic. Perhaps the last stanza says it all. It suggests to me a lack of seriousness from the beginning, a kind of deep passive aggressiveness from the partner, from a soul who is not self-aware.

[Eilis]

I guess I am trying to understand things still with regard to the dissolution of my long marriage. I think maybe a sense of bitterness permeates at the beginning. When your eyes open to painful things it is a big job of processing. I think your comment gets to the heart of the reality though it felt like a raw attempt at saying something when I find it difficult to say anything. I suppose everything begins somewhere. Thanks for reading and sharing this point of view. Your comments are always appreciated.

[Twilight]

A cruel aspect is evident here, in the way that the writer is encouraged to share and nurture writing; but her mentor then turns to act as if he's anything but sincere.

Instead of declaring nastily that the writer should give up, a fair friend or potential lover (or platonic one); would provide constructive criticism. So as, the writer might potentially improve. And, do so with some consistency.

Also, a good mentor would praise her genuine strengths; and not seek to entangle the potential writer's talent - with emotional blackmail over love.

If she mattered to her mentor, to the extent that such a potentially vulnerable woman deserves; he would neither act so cruelly nor deploy such a mind game...

[Eilis]

I appreciate your sensitive take on this writing, Julian. What you say is very true but often those with power over us seek to wield in damaging ways. People who confuse those whom the purport to love or support create a great deal of mental and emotional havoc. I think we should always try to be mindful of other people’s feelings and what damage we might do with carelessness. Thanks for your comment.