It's just poetry, it won't bite

Ever


08.27.10 Posted in today's words by

Author of 6 collections of poetry and more than 600 poems published in journals and anthologies, Scott Owens is editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review, Vice President of the Poetry Council of North Carolina, and recipient of awards from the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the Academy of American Poets, the NC Writers’ Network, the NC Poetry Society, and the Poetry Society of SC. He holds an MFA from UNC Greensboro and currently teaches at Catawba Valley Community College. Keep up with him at Red Room. Now read his poem twice (at least) and write a response. Are you willing to leave it? Open to negotiation? Do you feel like the parting is better off put off as long as possible?

Ever
By Scott Owens

I would not leave it willingly for anything,
although I know it’s never easy
and so full of sadness it makes tracks
in our faces, so full of pain it wrecks
hands, back, neck, nothing
at times but disappointment, a constant
rerun of days, routines of labor
and failure, attempt and frustration,
only rarely coming out on top.
Yet, when I can no longer wrestle
with the demands of the day and win,
still, I would not leave it willingly.
Even set upright in the chair,
blanket across my lap with nothing
but sight left, or sound, or any
sensation along the length of my body,
or nothing but thought, even reduced
to carcass or compost, mere elements,
or rising again in the veins of limbs
I would not leave it willingly, or ever.








4 Responses to “Ever”

  1. Bobbie Troy says:

    Wow, that’s a lot to think about.

  2. Jessie Carty says:

    Scott is the hardest working man in poetry 😉

  3. Patti F says:

    Often times I read, I enjoy, I forget. This poem has haunted me with a remembering. If that makes sense. Thank you.

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