heather's poems

horizon bound

Of a girl driving away from heartbreak and towards the horizon.

A few things I liked right away: the juxtaposition of the broken heart vs. the brand-new Chevrolet, perhaps suggesting a renewal? Her 'hands gripping the stereo and steering wheel / once held love tight,' suddenly moving from corporeal to incorporeal grasping (though I think the gripping of the wheel is a much more vivid image -- hands on faux-leather at 10 and 2 -- than gripping a stereo knob). I like the phrase 'keeping pirate eyes on the horizon' -- suggesting a sort of opportunistic squint. A few other observations: there is a period in the 3rd to last line and the last line, and nowhere else, and I was wondering the intent of that. Also, the closing -- sudden satisfaction after a poem about the start of a journey -- seemed somewhat abrupt. Finally, I wanted to see this explore the impossibility of reaching the horizon, since it is always equally distant, and that seemed especially in contrast with the facile ending. But the poem itself had a lot of elements that I appreciated.


when he stops the tears

The poem is perfectly summarized by the title.

I appreciated that there seemed to be a theme of falling early in the poem, evidenced by the words 'sinking,' 'falling,' and 'fall,' in the first 11 lines, with the last immediately juxtaposed as words falling 'forth from the soft lips you kiss,' against the expectation of the poem. Assuming I got it right, the line 'the strength you press your body to mine,' is more of a comforting embrace rather than a sexual embrace -- there's a few lines about fingers grazing bare skin as well, as in 'only to pull me closer' but in an embracing and nonsexual way. That wasn't what I expected and I appreciated being surprised. There's a line at the end 'we're perfect together,' which I had a question about -- does he say it or is it a statement? Because it seems from the evidence that he is more perfect for the speaker, as in he fulfills her needs. There's some aspects of this poem that I sincerely enjoyed, but it raises some questions for me -- why is this girl crying? Where are these people? Why are they perfect together?