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Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2022: Even My Darling Comes Back To Me
by Chiwenite Onyekwelu
I was born tender. As a kid, one of the things I desired most was a father's love, and seeing my father come home drunk and unconcerned most nights is perhaps the most traumatic experience of my childhood. But Love was the inspiration behind this poem— those little things he did that I almost didn't see; that were beautiful in themselves.
Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2022: Even My Darling Comes Back To Me
In this poem, there is no grief,
no brushfire,
not one bloodstain I will not bleach.
Was it not Lauren Abunassar that
said, as a matter of fact,
fact has no matter. I mean, I am
the brightness in my father’s eyes.
We walk
barefoot through sand dunes, his
face incandescent & yellowed out.
& this is love,
the way it nudges him into light,
lifts him backwards into the years
smooth as a plum,
where his child was still his child.
They say, breathing is the first
attempt to life
& so is love. This I know: I was
born harmless. Everything ravenous
came afterwards,
came when our silence became
a leech, became the wide mouth
of a gun.
I mean, there is something that
keeps washing into the sink.
I mean,
he got drunk most of the night & I lost
my voice where I sobbed till dawn.
I mean, this is
a love poem anyways. So I take
with me what I want to take. & yes,
I choose this.
I choose to look into the crack &
find it unsplit.
Poem recorded as part of Poetry Archive Now: Wordview 2022. Used by permission of author.
A special thank you to our WordView 2021 poets.
Chair of the Judging Panel, Joelle Taylor, says: "We were thrilled by the range and scope of the poetry and techniques explored throughout the wide submissions. I have said before that to write a poem is an act of resistance but to then perform it as well is a revolution. It takes a bravery to face the page, and a further one to stand by your words. While we’ve all become more used to filming ourselves over the pandemic, all of us were deeply aware of that courage.
Often when on a judging panel we find ourselves faced with impossible decisions. If you can imagine, after sifting, it’s as though a hundred people have crossed the finish line at precisely the same moment but there are only three medals. How do we come to these decisions? Through the objective unpicking of the poems, through our individual passions, through a consideration of narratives, especially those lesser heard. We come to it through uneasy negotiation and through heart, and above all through our shared love and understanding of the possibilities of poetry.
Our honest applause goes to all who submitted, and I hope you can hear it.
Congratulations to those we selected. We hope to see you all again soon."
See the collectionWatch the full Wordview 2022 playlist