Edward Clapham | + Follow Poet |
Blank verse | + Fav Poem | Comment | Email | Print |

Another Place

Another place

There is another place, where all things are possible, 
All words may be said, all thoughts brought into the limelight.
A place where emotion is welcomed and judgment takes no sides.
It is a place where you and I, who until now were but strangers,
Meet and become as intimate as lovers or long married friends;

Although we are intimate, there is a space between us;
This space, here, enclosed by a sweep of the hand, that 
Encompasses us both, but keeps us apart. It is your space,
To walk your past, present and future, as an explorer searches 
The landscape for sustenance and riches, and sometimes reason.

Here, in your space, I am lover, father, mother, sister, brother, 
Daughter, son, vixen friend and foxy foe, to be loved and reviled, 
Hated, and feared, adored, respected, dismissed and accepted.
I am the stranger who haunts your past, the face in the crowd, 
The gagging smell, the shuffling footsteps or squeaking door.

In this place, in this intimate space, you may weep to wash clean 
Memories long hidden beneath the prim tidiness of your mind.
You may laugh and laugh at the irony of your situation, 
Or shout and scream at me, the mirror to yourself, the
Tour guide to the truths in your fears and fantasies. 

Yet I may not be touched, nor your thoughts enacted except
In word and speculation, as though I am a phantom actor.
Always, I will remain apart from you, no more than a façade, 
Mystery behind, unrevealed, another life, yet human still 
With kind gesture, a smile, scarlet blush or furtive tear.

Here you are safe, cradled in the boundaries that both bind us, 
And make us free. Safe from the world of distant memory that 
Haunts you, when fear crept into your bed by night and the search 
For love and soothing filled your day. A place where formless 
Loss is given shape and substance, finally to be laid to rest.

And I? I am the watcher, alert to the half spoken thought. 
I am your mirror, that bends and shapes your reflection 
To reveal secrets that you hide, to give them meaning 
And substance; a shaft of sunlight penetrating murky 
Waters, that they at last be set into place in your life.

Copyright © Edward Clapham | Year Posted 2015

Please Login to post a comment