Chasing Life Through Ink Stains


The Repentant Magdalene ~ George De La Tour


The street is a river I drown in…
Floating in concrete I hear
the cries of broken dreams
writing their epitaphs across my skin.
No one throws me a life line.
 ________0_______0________0________0________0


Is there meaning in meaningless?
Who toe tags our lives with definitions
when our actions don’t play well in their boundaries?

My mind swims through a sea of perceptions
where waves of another’s understanding
crash me against mirrors void of my own reflection.

There is a threshold somewhere between sane and insane.
I don’t know if I am drowning in madness or if
the collective verbal condemnation is simply noise.

Clawing the skull cap that houses my essence
I try to find the center of who I should be,
but it morphs into something else as soon as
imagination becomes bored with where I am.

I am forever chasing shadows with a pen
to capture their words so others
can see the voices in my head...
such is life lived in ink stains.


 ©Susie Clevenger 2014

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Comments

hedgewitch said…
Susie, this is full of meaty thoughts and great imagery. From the opening, you hook the reader with a sense of personal involvement--I think we've all felt this way. Being crashed against walls by others' perceptions is a great line, and a very true one--I especially loved your conclusion:

I am forever chasing shadows with a pen
to capture their words so others
can see the voices in my head...

That sort of says it all. Thanks so much for participating, Susie.
March 26, 2014 at 9:28 PM
Sherry Blue Sky said…
I seriously LOVE this!!!!! toe tagging our lives with definitions? and clawing the skull cap that houses my essence - fantastic writing!
March 26, 2014 at 10:53 PM
Ella said…
I love yours! The depth of your symbols outlines the descent-sanity or insane?! Clever and I love your ending and the toe tag!
March 26, 2014 at 11:24 PM
Billy Blue Eyes said…
Wonderful how you put life into verse
March 27, 2014 at 5:21 AM
Scarlet said…
First, I love the title and the reflection on our lives, trying to find our center & balance of sanity and insanity ~ Love your writing Susie ~

Grace
March 27, 2014 at 7:31 AM
Marian said…
that's just the question, isn't it? am I actually drowning or is this all just noise?
really intriguing reflection, Susie... and I can relate.
March 27, 2014 at 9:11 AM
Maude Lynn said…
"where waves of another’s understanding
crash me against mirrors void of my own reflection."

That is just brilliant, Susie.
March 27, 2014 at 11:01 AM
Kerry O'Connor said…
This reads like a stream of consciousness - one thought chasing another as the idea evolves down the page.

This portion really struck me as profound.

There is a threshold somewhere between sane and insane. I don’t know if I am drowning in madness or if the collective verbal condemnation is simply noise.
March 27, 2014 at 12:21 PM
Mark Kerstetter said…
You throw off a lot of intriguing sparks here. I like how you use two meanings of "mirrors void of my own reflection" and this part -- "I try to find the center of who I should be, but it morphs into something else as soon as imagination becomes bored with where I am" is, it seems to me, the fate of the creative or thinking person. Sometimes self-creation is a joy, other times we're left with the ink stains.
March 27, 2014 at 4:33 PM
Anonymous said…
Nicely done, taking the challenge head-on, writing through the difficult edge between sanity and madness. Jung was creative and mad, too -- he tried to raise a conceptual edifice to create a clear, scientific path to healing, but later he found that wholeness was half-dark and needed its madness else it never gain the sane ground. We write in labyrinths like this, never sure of the way, proceeding one step at a time. Keep writing.
March 28, 2014 at 4:40 AM
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