Spooning With Loneliness

"Spooning with Loneliness" is a poem I wrote as I was looking to create an ironic poem for my portfolio this semester.  This one has undergone much revision and I'm happy with the end product.  I wanted to create an image where the reader could feel the stillness that comes when you are alone.  However, to achieve the irony, I personfied Loneliness to be an almost lover-type character.  The speaker of the poem finds comfort in the familar loneliness in her life.  I actually do not get this emotion very often so it made me stretch to bring that type of presence to my poem.

On a brighter note, I was suprised to find out I won third place in the Utah State Poet's Society's "New Poet" contest.  I really love writing and poetry has given me a lot of peace and great opportunties.   So a big thank you to UTSPS (he, he I found out they added the "t" to avoid USPS: there's not much poetry in the post office!)

            

Spooning With Loneliness

On nights when I hear shadows whispering,

when blackness swallows the moon; I feel

he is near.  He slips into my bed and I am

spooning with Loneliness. 

“Hush,” he softly whispers, “I am here now.”

Wrapping his arms around me, he

holds me tight, caressing my shoulders,

coaxing out the chill long-settled

into my bones.

“You are not alone,” Loneliness speaks smoothly

into my hair, “I’ll stay beside you.”  His warm

breath strokes my bare neck as melting into

me, we lay together in the stillness.

Feeling his familiar

presence, I listen

to whistling wind and

rhythmic tapping of trees sounding on

glass window panes.  A glimmer of starlight

strains to shimmer, but is

snuffed out by the deepening dark.

“Sleep now”, croons Loneliness, “I’ll never

leave you,” his promise

stretching to fill the emptiness

in the bed next to me, staying with

me until dawn.