scratches in my mind
thought-provoking, inspiring senryu for you all.
is failure failure?
success waiting to happen
what's real failure?
About the Creator
Paul Stewart
Award-Winning Writer, Poet, Scottish-Italian, Subversive.
The Accidental Poet - Poetry Collection out now!
Streams and Scratches in My Mind coming soon!
Keep reading
More stories from Paul Stewart and writers in Poets and other communities.
Foot Bindings
I asked my grandmother how she knew she'd fallen in love. I am not sure I ever did love him, she said. This was before I met my husband. I was naive, a naked spring, a raw nerve of a thing. That cannot ever be me, I knew. Sadness swept in gently like a Moscow thaw. It is no simple thing, looking into a woman's vast soul and seeing its foot bindings. Now, in Italy divorced with my skin singed off, when I say I don't love him mean: I have succeeded at feeling nothing most days and it mostly works. Do you want the comfort of Nothing? Do you want Nothing, too? Be warned: you'll never be free, even when you are nothing. Here is what doesn't work: Accepting the stages of grief. Talking about it. Sitting with the feeling. Missing him—no, the person you were when you believed in death do us part. Writing poetry. That, too. When I say I don't love him I mean: I feel capsized in an endless, starved tide. What sometimes works: selective memory. You must forget ripe tomatoes and his beard and feeling perfectly sheltered in a big blue world. Forget coffee in bed, laughter watching TV, blowing out the candles on the birthday cake and the quiet all-encompassing knowledge that you are chosen. Remember only how love turned to a banal everyday survival act, a trapeze act unsure whether he will catch you, how the warmth stagnated and became sour, remember the foot bindings and remember the resentment boiling in your veins as you stick it out for the kids. Six-hour Netflix binges help, too. A man's fingers tracing your spine. Frozen pizza at 2 a.m. Random trips to the museum just to stand near things that last a while. The realization that crying won’t change anything. Seeing that life is just a dream, and refusing to participate in your own suffering. Bite your fist. Walk on eggshells around joy. When I say I don't love him, I mean he didn’t break my heart, he just stopped touching it and it forgot how to beat right.
By Ella Bogdanova2 days ago in Poets
Public Announcement Challenge Winners
For the Public Announcement Challenge, writers were asked to work inside voices built for control. These were notices, warnings, and updates meant to inform rather than confess. The strongest entries committed to that form and didn't break from it. Corporate memos, formal government alerts, and internal policy language were held consistently, allowing emotion, fear, grief, or humor to surface indirectly through pressure rather than declaration. The following poems recognize the voice of authority, and let human feeling slip through despite all its rules and restraint.
By Vocal Curation Team4 days ago in Resources
Comments (13)
Great questions! Failure is a part of life, but not indefinite. Unless you give up.
Lovely and truly thought provoking (fitting of the subtitle), for all the right reasons! Real failure, I think, is a lot less common than the definition implies!
Hmmmm. Something to think about. I consider "failure failure" the inability of those folks who decide to be bigoted and racist, malicious, thoughtless, self-absorbed and entitled, and hateful. That's failure on a societal level. That's rather "real" failure, IMO.
Not trying, that's real failure.
Well, what's real failure? Does it even exist? Does it happen when you say it's happened?
Hmmm, real failure. I think it's when we prioritise others more than ourselves. Real failure is failing to be there for ourselves when we need us the most. I hope that makes sense 😅😅
I think John is right, failure is not being brave enough to try. 😊
Is this a regular question or just rhetorical? I can never tell. I was going to say you only fail if you give up, but now I’m wondering if this is a trick question. There are so many different kinds of questions. Better read it again to make sure. Maybe if I read it backwards? Well THAT didn’t help. OK, I give up. What’s real failure? Never trying at all?
A perennially pertinent question!
Nice. Real failure is unique to all of us isn't it?
You learn so much more from what you do wrong than what you do right. Thoughtful stuff!
Failure is what I do every day to teach me the right way
Liked the title, the image choice, and each line!