Suspended in Kansas City

Judge comment:

POTP had a very interesting lesson to write for and I think she definitely excelled here. I love the images, all my "wins" for this week are so vivid, and this is definitely one of them. LOVE LOVE LOVE that ending. I sense a bit of sassiness from the poet and that thrills me.. I love attitude evoked in poetry. That ending is so strong, and so.. in your face vibrant. I really am focused on all the senses of this poem, it's truly beautiful.

Lovely poem. Creative and loaded with figurative language. Of course, loaded in a positive connotation.

Okay, so usually I read a poem, and if it moved me to the point of being speechless, I go away and muse over it, get my head in check and try and explain my thoughts, well, this poem left me speechless when I first read it, and I have been musing over it ever since, and still, I don't know how I'm going to convey anything, because, if I am honest, there was so much going on the poem that I felt I could grasp, and relate to, and then just parts that were pure magic and liquid gold.

Your soul is a harvest gold
phone booth.

^^Okay, now I read this and I was thinking, what does that mean? I think of a phone booth as a place to dial when you need to tell someone something and you have no signal or credit on your mobile, when your lost and need a cab or a friend to come and get you...for it to be harvest gold, it's special, and I took that to mean that there is someone special that you need to talk to, to help them or for them to help you.

I try to reach you,
my hands like blinking constellations,
always opening

^^What a way to describe the feeling of being far away, unable to reach out, unable to get that message to that person. That's what I think anyway. I mean, sometimes you just don't know what you're going to say, like me, here, now.

[a tulip never found
in autumn's grave]

for you are caged.

^^I sense that there is someone in need, I sense that someone is giving up, like life is draining from them, and maybe Autumn was a bad time, yet this beautiful flower was still there but no-one knew that. That's just beautiful, but sad too.

No, there aren't prison bars,
metal chains, or wardens
spitting profusely at your
leather face,

there is only crystal
through which you see everything,
but cannot affect
the world.

^^Yes, Yes, Yes...How did you describe how I felt? That part, was like, where it hit me...the world is so free yet I feel stuck in a place, I'm not being kept here, but I can't find a way out.

I've told you [a thousand times]
that understanding takes
time,
but you keep calling
strangers,
(your safeguarded shelter)
in hope they pick up
the ring ring
and whisper a winded

"hello"

^^This was just an ending that knocked the wind out of me, as to speak. The words, the way you say that you dial this person, you worry for them, you need to hear them, and anything, would calm your fears for them. How they open up to other people, in other ways, but you just want them to talk to you...to know you are there. That is one beautiful gesture and shows how big your heart is.

You truly wrote something that I found difficult to explain my feelings towards, there is so much more I could try and say, but it has taken me so long to get these words out that I'd be here for week, and even then it wouldnt be enough.

MaryAnne, this is greatness, this is fantastic, this just blew me away, WOW

Nominated as soon as, and into my Favourites, I'll be reading this for a long time to come, I am certain of it.

xxx

I feel as though this poem is you trying to get through to someone yet they aren't on the same page as you. The blinking constellations being like how obvious this is that you want to tell them but they still are so oblivious to all of it. I thought the phone booth was a nice and different metaphor to describe this. I feel as though it could go so many ways, they could be more reserved than others, more innocent and shy. It could be that they are blinded by you trying to get their attention..or it could mean that someone is possibly standoffish. Ignoring you. Giving you the cold shoulder. Obviously all of these don't fit with this poem but it's a lovely metaphor because even though they don't seem to blend with the poem, there's always a way to spin your words and make meaning of it. Interesting poem in all, the title was a unique one, not quite sure the significance of Kansas City in this, but it'd be awesome to know the true meaning of this poem :) Well done.

I feel as though this poem is you trying to get through to someone yet they aren't on the same page as you. The blinking constellations being like how obvious this is that you want to tell them but they still are so oblivious to all of it. I thought the phone booth was a nice and different metaphor to describe this. I feel as though it could go so many ways, they could be more reserved than others, more innocent and shy. It could be that they are blinded by you trying to get their attention..or it could mean that someone is possibly standoffish. Ignoring you. Giving you the cold shoulder. Obviously all of these don't fit with this poem but it's a lovely metaphor because even though they don't seem to blend with the poem, there's always a way to spin your words and make meaning of it. Interesting poem in all, the title was a unique one, not quite sure the significance of Kansas City in this, but it'd be awesome to know the true meaning of this poem :) Well done.