Schäfer's Reflections: Break-up Nonet Challenge

My Musings

This was a hard challenge for me. I wrote nothing at all for it for ages. Nothing, nothing, and nothing. I meant to enter, but everything sounded cliche.

It was hard for a lot of reasons. Poetry hasn't been my happy place for a long time. I struggle even more when I'm restricted by letters and words. This one felt too broad. There was too much we could do with it, and it all felt like it had been done and done and done already. Where to start, and how to make it sing? Could I, even?

Days slipped by, weeks, and I'd failed to do more than one half-hearted draft.

On the last day, hours I think, before the challenge closed, I finally got my arse into gear. I submitted four poems in pretty quick succession. Here they are:

Thank you

Thanks go, as always, to Vocal for this challenge. For this platform where, not only can we make multiple entries, but a beautiful culture of support is evident, and, well, cultivated.

Thank you as well to the regulars (you know who you are) who are just as important in making this place what it is.

Thank you to everyone who read my little entries, and for your kind and thoughtful words.

My submissions

broken

It stands on its own (as they all should, I think), but it also ties in nicely (fully intended, not sorry) with the first poem I submitted on Vocal. That one is called String Theory, and it was also the first poem I'd written in a very (very) long time. You can see it here:

I have a soft spot for that one for two reasons. First, because it rhymes, so in some small, childish part of me, I am convinced that makes it a "proper poem". Second, for the last lines. They are the best metaphor for love I've ever managed to squeeze out of my creaky brain. I decided to take that imagery, of cords woven between two people, two hearts, if you like, and play with it. Take it further, think of them being snapped. snapped was originally the title for it, but it sounded too angry, and I wanted it to sound softer and sadder.

knot for you

Forty-five syllables is knot enough for all the stringy, knotty puns you can make about love and break ups. This one was overspill, really. A shameless pun-fest. I am not sorry.

burn

This one might feel familiar - I reworked an old idea for it. If you would like to read the longer, more free form version, it is here:

When you break up with someone, you think it hurts because they were just so great, right? They were sooo great and now you've lost them, oh no, poor me, ow ow ow, etc.

But no. It hurts because you are so great. Because your capacity for love is a sword with a second edge, which is the capacity for damnable pain.

Stop giving your shitty exes all the credit for your good qualities.

dawn

This one is my favourite out of these four.

I liked the metaphor of a battlefield for love and relationships. I am certain I'm not the first or last to make the comparison. I wanted to write something a bit uplifting, because let's face it: break ups are sad. The songs and poems about them can be pretty depressing, to be honest. If you're down, if your heart hurts, I wanted to light a fire under your bottom. I wanted to tell you to be fearless, to lean into it.

Shout outs

In no particular order, here are some of the entries I enjoyed. I hope you enjoy them, too. There were something like a thousand entries to this challenge, so there was no way I was going to manage to read them all! I've tried to pick people I don't usually shout out, and ones that didn't already get recognised (by getting a shout out from someone else, or a Top Story). Give them a look and let me know what you think.

Here they are:

the narcissus bulbs by Gina C.

Morgan Rhianna Bland did a smashing pair of nonets, from both perspective (stellar idea! Always two sides to every story, right?) Bleeding Hearts (Him) and Bleeding Hearts (Her).

Brilliant Moon by Cindy Calder

We Are by Catsidhe

Isle of Patmos by Natasha Collazo

Fragile by Kale Bova

Previous Challenges

I've done the same for previous challenges. Here are a couple:

+

Thank you for reading!