Batter My Heart Poem by Linda Hepner

Batter My Heart

Rating: 5.0


Let me get this straight.
If you are mine and I am yours
And we are one,
Then what’s the other one?
The scales wait.
If she is yours and you are hers,
And you are me,
Then through the knot of you
Are we a line,
Your Janus head turned east or west
Or right and left
And am I kept
In dark or light,
Is day now night
Or she exotic wild beyond imagining
Within my wild mind imaging
A kind of mirror rich and strange
Reflecting all the range
Of your complexity,
Or is that me?
Easier to bear: a triangle:
Each point joined, each angle
Regarding each, reflecting each,
Pouring, storing
Juices of our minds’ desire,
Feeding fire
Through the high vibrating wire
Running through each;
And yet let’s get this straight:
If we are one, perplexed
Why do I find
The tortured mind
Of my hearted triangle
The lower apex -
So weighted at my angle?

LRH
5.14.06

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Raynette Eitel 19 May 2006

Linda this is a cut far above other poems on the same subject. Your angled metaphor was brilliant and I applaud you for that. Another thing you did quite well was to avoid being maudlin or having tear-streaked lines. Your questions were all from the head, even though your heart certainly was involved. I applaud you. Raynette

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Gina Onyemaechi 15 May 2006

Well, you might not have got yourself into a tangle writing this, Lind, but I'm now a complete mess of knots! ! I like the way the poem races and dances along, as our Hugh observes. And I like the allusion to the Donne piece as well. 'Batter My Heart' is, as young Mr De Faiote would say, a 'battering ram' of a poem (Tomas once said that to me about one of my poems) . Anyway, see you at the Gielgud. What shall we watch? I'll have to check out what NON-OPERATIC shows will be on at the time.: -) Love, Gina.

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Hugh Cobb 14 May 2006

What a dance it is and it rarely works with our conditioning to paired relationships. You present the quandary well and its emotional toll. Know that the other two points also share the same conflicts. Fine writing. Best and Happy Mother's Day, Hugh

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Ernestine Northover 14 May 2006

A real Tangle Wrangle. Very good indeed, I loved the read. I'm surprised you didn; t get all mangled up doing this one. Loved it. love Ernestine XXX

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