Lost Things Wait for You to Find Them but Sometimes They Don't
Inverse Poetry
You’ll find what you have lost
think of when you held it last
my inner sage counsels
retrace your steps
your misplaced charm will dangle
dizzying
in an angle of side-seeping light
with blinding iridescence
like misplaced keys
pimpernels in mischief mode
pinned to the place you left them
like the promises we planted
You can’t remember?
in biodegradable pots
white alliums for our wedding
Lost things
flung from prams by toddlers
like rainbow jellycats
to find lost things
retrace your steps
don’t lose parts of yourself
on the way
to where you need to go
Anchor a thread from now
unravel with intention
I'll follow the advice
I’ll collect heartbeats
in the missing rungs
of the ladder back to you
I’m at the bottom
germinating once again
reaching for an ambivalent sun
Is climbing the answer?
Does hickory crumble under pressure?
the creak of splintered rungs
step after step
could send me tumbling over
rejection’s hollow presence
Your soap lies cracking,
deliquescence lost
from the absence of your skin
I am a misplaced diary
Pages and pages of lost things
fireflies for a hungry dark
where night has lost its stars
Electricity sparks my cheek
flickers in a passing breeze
Your scent flirts with me
in unceasing symbiosis
Did we just share oxygen?
Are you near?
Did you dissolve with the sunlight?
if I retrace my clumsy steps
clinging to Hermes' arm
I know you won't be there
you left with traces of my touch
clinging to your skin
without me.
* * * * *
Now read it from bottom to top. Thank you ☺️
If you enjoyed this poem, maybe you’d like to read this abecedarian:
About the Creator
Teresa Renton
Inhaling life, exhaling stories, poetry, prose, flash or fusions. An imperfect perfectionist who writes and recycles words. I write because I love how it feels to make ink patterns & form words, like pictures, on a page.
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Comments (44)
And congrats on winning the contest!
Divine poetry! I have the same question: "Does hickory crumble under pressure?" 🥰
“ fireflies for a hungry dark where night has lost its stars” is a wonderfully vivid line Teresa, and you use imagery really well throughout this. I like the yearning tones, and also the presence of acceptance too. Nicely done🤗
Happy belated congrats on such fine work. 🤩🤩🤩
Truly wonderful, Teresa! A well deserved win on such a difficult challenge! Congratulations!
Wow that was so amazing! I see now why you won the challenge. Congrats on that by the way! But it’s amazing when someone can create a poem both backwards and forward like this, but yours is so detailed with such rich language it’s even more impressive going backwards and forwards with it. Really powerful stuff. Truly amazing!
Truly spectacular! This challenge was so difficult and you have nailed this. Amazing concept, execution, and word choice 😍😍 Congratulations, Teresa!
Just…. Wooow! I can see why you won this challenge. Congratulations… I’m still … this isn’t gonna leave me in a hurry. Wow! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Oh, Teresa! This is imagery-rich and a delicious word smorgasbord! An absolute stunner of a poem! Congratulations on your brilliant win! *POM-POM-POMM-ING YOU* YAAAAYS!!!
The imagery in this is really beautiful, wow <3
Phenomenal job! Congratulations!🎉
Congratulations. Beautiful
This was great! From lost little objects to finding things from a lost love. Congrats!
Congratulations on a well-deserved win, Teresa!
Congratulations!
Wow. Incredible. Congratulations! 🎊🎈🎉
Woah! Nice story regardless of which end you start reading! Congratulations!
Congratulations!! ❤️❤️
I have chills when reading this from end to start. Amazing. It completely changes the feel of the poem.
Wooohooooo congratulations on your win! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊
Goodness, I ought to write a dissertation on this, Teresa. (Just a taste: "iridescence" echo-rhyming with "deliquescence"??? That is next level poetry for Vocal, my friend. Please publish this elsewhere too, find a publication that doesn't care it was posted here first!) "pimpernels in mischief mode pinned to the place you left them like the promises we planted" That alliteration is sublimely done. But the entire thing! I read it twice going forwards. And backwards, it's like the lines I didn't pay close enough attention to stood out to me, completely new. I think you've just won the entire category of what inverse poetry IS. This is a masterclass in it and I don't want to read any other. (I mean, I will... But you know what I mean.) Gosh, it's just so perfect. I can see the time and care you put into it. A long inverse like this must have taken weeks to finish. I'm so impressed by how the journey translates in the reverse reading. Absolutely incredible. That ladder bit is sticking in my brain.
This is such an amazing poem! Your imagery is absolutely wonderful. Congrats on first place! 🥳
WOW. This is truly outstanding- your incredible wordsmithing creates vivid images and a punch of raw- but very distinct- emotions, reading both up and down. Congratulations!!
Excellent 💐
Congrats!!