went to the cemetery - hoping to dig my own grave - look at all these people buried away next to the flowerbeds / that sudden blinding light from being forced into the dark blinking us into existence / books should not be this quiet they should be crying from the shelves - life should not be passed - should be encountered / mum of a girl i once knew comes inside of the library, to browse i think you wouldn’t recognise me now nobody ever does - i haven’t changed / Kate ©
full poem can be read on my Patreon
Allen Ginsberg was one of my first poetry influences. I bought a book of his poems in HMV when I was 16. Before, when I was a child, I remember reading fat anthologies of rhyming poems for children, with well-thumbed pages, that I would borrow from my public library. I can picture that library now, they knocked it down and replaced it a few years ago. These books were on the bottom shelf, and I can feel the scratchy carpet underneath my fingers, as I had to use both hands to pull a book out, as they were so tightly packed in. From reading those anthologies I thought poetry was fun and had to rhyme. Cue then going into secondary school and having to analyse poems, which was not so much fun. Allen Ginsberg, however, was a revelation. His poetry was written in the way I thought. That book of his poems went everywhere with me and I read it frequently. I think you can see his influence in this poem.
Poetic Insights 