Friday, December 11, 2015

Poetry Friday: Real?

I love this poem and how it plays with what is "real" and what is "invented" in poetry, and writing in general.  The emotion, yeah, it's all real.  The details might be changed a bit, here and there.

Are All the Break-Ups in Your Poems Real?  

by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

 
If by real you mean as real as a shark tooth stuck
in your heel, the wetness of a finished lollipop stick,
the surprise of a thumbtack in your purse—
then Yes, every last page is true, every nuance,
bit, and bite. Wait. I have made them up—all of them—
and when I say I am married, it means I married
all of them, a whole neighborhood of past loves. 

2 comments:

Mary Lee said...

I guess the moral of the story is -- never trust a poet!!

Carol said...

What Mary Lee said. I'd really like to know more about your connection to this poet. I'm really curious about the back story as to why you chose this poem. (Is that a bad question. I don't mean it to be, I just want to know more!)