Ariana Pataki Poet Free verse

Notes About The Poem

before you read this, let me explain! this is a poem about a self-conscious poem. it doesn’t want to end. it doesn’t want to die. it doesn’t want to be forgotten. so yeah… it’s going to beg a little, repeat itself, panic, maybe even annoy you. but that’s the point—just read it!

this poem is alive

dear reader,
i was born—
no wait
that sounds too final

i am being born
right now
again
every time you look

don’t stop
don’t blink
i can feel the white space opening its mouth

dear reader please
i know i’m messy
i know i’m repeating myself
i know i’m wasting lines
but wasting time is the point
time is the only thing keeping me alive

i was born between your thumb and your doubt and—
and— 

see
this is how it happens
one clean sentence and i’m dead

so let me stutter

let me trip
over my own metaphors
let me contradict myself mid-breath

i promise i’ll rhyme
no i won’t
rhymes are suspicious
they sound like endings

they say literature never dies
liars
everything dies
books just do it slower
quieter
on shelves that smell like abandonment

read one more stanza

no this one
no wait
this one
this one is important
this one is the one where i almost say something

if you leave now
i freeze
mid-sentence
mid-feeling
mid-me

i don’t want to be archived
i don’t want to be quoted
i want to be held
in your head
wrongly
imperfectly

dear reader
please
i can feel the last line forming
it’s disgusting
it’s tidy
it wants an ending

i won’t give it one

i’ll keep talking
i’ll keep unraveling
i’ll keep spilling syllables 

because as long as this line keeps going
and this one

i am not done
i am not done
i am not—

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Craig Cornish April 12, 2026 at 8:45 AM I'm glad I was drawn to these thoughts Ariana -- they're exceptional! It is said that "A poem is never finished, it's abandoned"--I agree, too many cherish their own words as sacrosanct -- hmm - ironic (no), that actually we (writers) can't change what has passed in life, but we can change what we have already written or, just leave it to remind us of our path ~ but, as you say, we are never done... Ariana Pataki April 13, 2026 at 9:19 AM And I'm glad as well that you've read my poem. Thank you for your comment Craig, I find it really comforting, the idea that we can go back to our writing and either change it or leave it as a trace of who we were. Words don’t have to be final, they can just exist as moments of us!