pearls

Waking Promise

Posted in something different, something special by maggie on 2011/04/04
Waking Promise
 		 

against tear's ache,
pain in love will weave -
we from dream may wake


— pieces of a collaborative sequence
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4 comments

4 Responses

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  1. maggie said, on 2013/01/30 at 10:52

    Some of the best poetry I have ever had the privilege to write has been collaborative.

    All poetry is collaborative in the intimacy between the writer and the reader. No poetry author can avoid collaboration without turning the poem into dead void and endless silence.

    But a good poetry collaboration between two or more authors who join their voices as is done in a duet or as in any joint effort, from a marriage to a community to any effort that takes more than one person! Such joint creation ought not be disparaged or dismissed. Or do words change so much that poetry collaboration is valued in a controlling and possessive relationship with one certain partner but treated with jealous malicious spite when shared with some other?

    I’m currently actively engaged in writing collaboratively with several other poets who share mutual respect and appreciation for the value of such joint efforts and for the light in each other’s vision. But my first and forever love for collaboration was and always will be the writer with whom I collaborated on this and several other poems in this collection. I would always accept and welcome any moment to share further collaborations with that mentor and friend again, were it not that what I believe and who I am and even my own child are now so openly rejected and insulted and trashed. Sad loss. Partly so sad a loss because the words on which we once collaborated, as witnessed by this piece here, do not change, nor does the love it promises ever quit, no matter how much I and my family and friends are attacked and rejected and shunned and forgotten.

    Collaboration is not a weaker form of poetry than the far more common solo voice. Good collaboration has always had a waking promise that remains true to its word.

    Reply
  2. macheide said, on 2013/02/07 at 07:41

    Beautiful little pearl this is! I remember the unique string it was part of, each jewel fitting so well into a single work. You always wrote so well together. Ever open, ever sincere and trusting, ever on fire with love and light.

    I like that you can still feel as open and trusting in the joint writing you’ve been working on recently. And I commend you for working with your loving support to repost all that you had once so freely shared.

    I do hope you won’t mind me expressing the hope that you will find the strength to again feel free to post openly without extra protection against gossip and opposition. Remember always that he stands with you, as do your family and friends. Your poetry is good, and ought not remain hidden.

    Reply
    • maggie said, on 2013/02/19 at 17:49

      Uh, unlikely. That I might return to posting as openly as I used to, I mean. Don’t expect it.

      Mainly, because I’m not a poet. Like how playing a bit of catch out back with your daughter never made you a baseball player.

      For what this used to be, whether in this poem’s collaboration or other poems’ solo exchanges, open was how it was from the very first sonnet I posted all the way through, so Dean was absolutely right in encouraging me to reverse the shell I went into when it and my beliefs were subjected to personal attack.

      I have far more at stake now. The protection will remain in place. Even Dean understands why. Hope all you wish, but don’t expect the future level of my personal privacy to be reconsidered.

      Reply
    • maggie said, on 2013/03/07 at 04:52

      Good to have seen you again. But no, just as all that was open shall remain open, so will all I’m now protecting remain so.

      This being meant as a poetry blog, comment flow that represents responsible commentary is always read and given all due respect, whether positive or negative, particularly when the comment addresses to poetry itself.

      This blog is not the proper place to air some of the comment traffic I have been forced to clean up after.

      At the first blog site I ventured out to post poetry, I was forced to delete all my content and depart when I and my sister-in-law were subjected to very direct and abusive sexual harassment from a California blogger, without benefit of anyone who would stand up for us against the open aggression we encountered, advised only to shrug it off, even after the harassment stretched beyond that blog site to private connections that ought to have remained confidential. Me a runner? At heart I’ll always be the street girl who knows where the back door is. I’m not afraid to stand up to danger, especially when it’s to stand by a friend, but I don’t see anything at all noble in hanging around to fight the kind of crude harassment I and my sister-in-law were facing at that other site, especially when we had no one standing up for us against the attacks.

      For Sara, that encounter triggered an intense agoraphobia that plagued her until David, and still troubles her to this day. You yourself were not unscathed by the destructive games that man played, fighting off intrusion even into your workplace and family life. Real life serious scars that we were all supposed to simply shrug at, ignore, accept.

      Me a runner? Since I’ve begun posting here, I have been repeatedly subjected to similarly crude attacks and stalkers and other vermin from all directions, north to south to east to west. None of them at all concerned with the craft of my poetry itself, unless that too were trashed in the rudest of manner showing complete ignorance not only of poetry but of any and all of the arts, ignorant of any knowledge whatsoever. Whenever the junk traffic became too unbearably similar to my experience at my first blog site, I looked for the back door. I don’t run from the side of any friend, nor do I run just to escape rough weather or troubles I must deal with, but putting up with sexual harassment and stalkers and other such unnecessary shit is not my idea of courage. In the same way that escape is a noble means to avoid a rape attempt, without demanding that the potential victim stick around to attempt to kick the attacker in the balls, I make no excuses for leaving my first blog site upon being subjected to sexual harassment, nor for all the times here when I’ve similarly felt the need to go underground. I stand and fight what makes sense to fight, and use the back doorway out for shit no person should be asked to accept.

      Dean has been working with me to at least re-open what at one point had been completely free and open, both the content that had been at that first website and content that had originally been openly posted here. Certain poems that were shared privately and in confidence remain that way – nothing that was shared confidentially has been made public here. But Dean has been right about the healing I’ve needed by re-opening what originally had been posted openly and shared freely.

      That said, I’ve again recently come under very direct assault and open threat by someone who apparently feels like I’m an obstruction to his agenda. I have far greater concerns at stake now, far more even than myself or even my friends or my sister-in-law. If protection best meets my new responsibilities, then I make no apology for permanently closing the door on access to my future poetry.

      And you, my dear friend, who along with Dean have helped me heal and who express hope for open poetry like I used to write. Now I wonder if you’ll ever have the chance again to share the protected content to which I’ve given you access. If you do make it back, I myself may be gone by then, not running, simply living without fear of the sort of harassment I’ve had to deal with. Start here, knowing why I’ve gone the way I have, then follow the course of the protected content I’m writing, and you’ll know where I am to be found, never hidden from you, dear friend. Consider that your own waking promise from me.

      Love, Maggie

      Reply

Sincere comment by readers who accept responsibility for their words will earn my respect, my appreciation and my response.