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Darren White | + Follow Poet |
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Floating

Being here is like being in the womb
Of the woman who carried you in this warm
Safe pool where all your worries were how to
Move your arm, how to not get entwined in that
                     Weird rope in the middle.

The water is cold, but not too, and if you close your eyes
You can imagine, you can JUST imagine what it feels like
To be so free again, and looked after and cared for
You can JUST hear voices quarrelling
And this very instant you realise this water is not
Your mother’s love just below her heart, her love
Is here all around you and she will worry if you float
                     On and on.

Most times this is how life is, trying to get a grip on it
But it evades like the little waves you can make with your hands
Little ripples in the surface that mean nothing
Like trying to get a grip on what people say around you
Words without meaning or at least it eludes you
As if swimming between fish with their own language
Forever trying to guess
                     And being rejected

Once you liked to swim,
Once you were a wee one
So with slow calculated strokes you move to safety
And sit shivering.
Not knowing how to live life and connect
Nor knowing how to stop life.
Once you loved to swim, hearing your mother
Sing to you from a distance. And that sound brings you
                     Back home again.

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April 28, 2017
Copyright © Darren White

Copyright © Darren White | Year Posted 2017

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Sara Ella Date: 4/30/2017 12:09:00 AM Floating through life and floundering until you find yourself back to where you started. <3 Swimming and floating are both fun but not all the time. You write so that there are multiple meanings. I could read this one again and again. :) Login to Reply Darren White Date: 4/30/2017 1:05:00 AM Yes, this one has layers of meaning right on top of each other. I am glad you like this <3

Maria Williams Date: 4/29/2017 1:23:00 AM How beautifully you have connected a woman's love for the baby she is carrying, bridging the gap between stroking her swollen belly and singing to be heard through thin walls. In a warm safe pool. Those words alone give me goosebumps. My dearest young friend, words are putty in your hands. A fave and a 7+++ Login to Reply Darren White Date: 4/29/2017 1:41:00 AM It makes me extremely happy that you like this poem of mine. And yes, it has that meaning, and I hope I did the feeling right that a mother can have for her unborn child. Thank you for the fav and the 7 :)

Tim Smith Date: 4/28/2017 3:54:00 PM It is hard to keep from sinking but have trust that others will help keep you afloat. Login to Reply Darren White Date: 4/28/2017 11:29:00 PM There you go! You sensed the other meaning here too, and you are right. It is very hard to keep from sinking, from wishing to sink even. And it takes a conscience, and love, to stay afloat.

Anne-Marie Coreggia Date: 4/28/2017 10:23:00 AM Oh Darren, what a poem! The call of the womb . . . when I was a kid and we vacationed by the sea I would literally swim away and wouldn't come back until severe cramps called me back to reality. A fave:) Amitiés Login to Reply Darren White Date: 4/28/2017 11:45:00 AM Thank you Anne-Marie! That sounds just lovely, also thank you for the fave :)

Richard Lamoureux Date: 4/28/2017 8:48:00 AM Have you ever tried a float tank with salt water? I thought It would feel closed in but it actually felt like floating in the universe. Great poem as always Darren. I too think in pictures. Login to Reply Darren White Date: 4/28/2017 9:12:00 AM No, I've never done that, are you completely closed in, head and all? Because that sounds scary.... Welcome, picture thinker! And thank you :)

Chris Green Date: 4/28/2017 7:55:00 AM It is obvious tome that you see what you write. I don't mean the words on the page but the scene, the experience, the moment, you see it clearly and allow your pen to paint the picture that is n your mind and it is obvious because we se it too within your wonderful words my friend. Very well done. Login to Reply Darren White Date: 4/28/2017 7:59:00 AM I like you saying that. At one time during my recovery process, they checked my IQ (not interesting), but what was interesting, was that one part of that test, was about how I think. A question for instance was: if you see the word chair, what do you see in your mind? I never see letters, I see pictures. When I read, I see films, never the words. They say I am a graphical thinker or whatsitcalled in English. So yeah, that's perhaps why my poems are the way they are :) Thanks Chris!

Charmaine Chircop Date: 4/28/2017 6:13:00 AM Goosebumps...I can relate as a mother and as a daughter...once a little one floating in that safe womb called home.A fave. Login to Reply Darren White Date: 4/28/2017 6:16:00 AM Wonderful Charmaine, Thank you, also for the fave :)

White Wolf Date: 4/28/2017 5:20:00 AM You have dived deep and found the stone that has caused all those tiny ripples in this prose piece, Duir! Love it, my friend! How much do you charge for lessons again? I'm going to need quite a few! Login to Reply Darren White Date: 4/28/2017 5:23:00 AM Thank you for that wonderful compliment Budgie my friend :) Lessons are for free as long as you don't mean swimming lessons hahaha.