Poem of the Day: “Almost Unbearable” by Carol Hamilton, Poet of the Month

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “Almost Unbearable” by Carol Hamilton, Poet of the Month.  Ms. Hamilton will also be serving as the guest judge for the Songs of Eretz Poetry Award Contest, which will run from September 1 to October 15, 2015.  A detailed biography of Ms. Hamilton may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2015/08/songs-of-eretz-poetry-review-poet-of.html.  The contest guidelines may be previewed here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/p/songs-of-eretz.html.

              Almost Unbearable

Orpheus & Eurydice

             The cold,  she said,

a riff on pain

    or where arrow enters,

                        another the dangled flesh

of dismemberment,

                           the chasm too deep and black

   to swallow

 when love is ripped off.

    Today I’ll pull up

  the tomatoes

before the frost

     desiccates those pushy, virile vines

  that flowered yellow

everywhere

       just days ago.

     We’re all brought low.

 The Jerusalem artichokes

                             have fallen like trees

                         in the forest,

                         sap-stopped and top heavy.

      The buried roots will nourish later

though light slips away

every, every single day

      and I sit, ever

            on the cusp of nothingness.

     Once more Orpheus has begun

                                his long climb

                                to the surface

         even as his shaky faith

rides his back,

devours his trust,

 the one reason we must learn

   to lie.

                  There on that aperture’s rim

                  wait I.

Carol Hamilton

Poet’s Notes:  There are always the stories of loss of paradise, as well, of loss of love for lack of faith, loss of the abundance of the year. The poem is scattered on the page as our histories of gain and loss are scattered about throughout our lives. We must share all the stories. This is not necessarily a neat and tidy thing.

Editor’s Note:  I enjoy the way this poem comes full circle, with the allusion to the mythical Orpheus in the first stanza and the direct reference to it in the last.  A nice summary of the myths surrounding Orpheus may be found here:  http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/orpheus.html.