Poetry - The Hole

I did the second day of my poetry course yesterday and it was just fabulous. I learnt things which were quite a revelation to me, which I will refrain from detailing here because the audience for a poetry lesson is a limited one, but they might appear in dribs and drabs.

Anyway, I thought I’d be brave and give you an original poem, though you can expect better things from this point on, with my increased awareness. I wrote this poem some time ago, and have hesitated to post it, mainly because I thought there are those out there who might question my theological soundness or my personal faith (which I don't think is necessary - though I guess the writer never would - mainly because I think poetry can express the range of human experience, in much the same way as the Psalms do, and still be "faithful", which is a whole other topic that has been discussed elsewhere - and I digress in my own defence). But at the other end I have made some very good friends through this poem, because they have read it and thought “ah, yes” and a conversation began. And that to me is one of the possibilities of poetry.

I took this one along to workshop because I had questions about it and I asked Judith if it worked OK given it’s total lack of structure, and she nodded and said it did because it had a metaphorical structure, so that was interesting. It is not about a romantic scenario by the way - I actually took some of the particulars out of this one, so readers could fill in their own. So without further ado:

The Hole

Today I met someone

Met someone and

found a hole

inside myself

The God-shaped hole

is full

Still there are other holes,

less vital

not less empty

I live (and praise)

yet suffer their void

Till came a sudden

flood of solace

Hole filling

with rising ache

Unknown gap

now craving

***

The filler of the hole

went away

Left me

Sounding the edge

Hole gaping

Since then

I have a map

I know the place

the length and depth

of the hole

Now I know

what’s not there

©ALP 2009