Truly Alive [rev] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

FINALLY you returned after an eternity spent in limbo while
nothing made sense, walking around without thoughts in my
head, watching various TV programmes & reading anything
and nothing emotionally registering, talking to my colleague
just to discover while I'm on planet nine with Anne Fine, she
is firmly planted in the reality of bureaucracy & living her life
with her mind on what's happening, not another wavelength
like mine, I gave up communication to wander alone like the
proverbial cloud while finding myself an outsider in my

Own life - life became a dark pit the bottom of which I could
not begin to reach, when you returned I couldn't register the
fact at first, the opaqueness remained in place as it seemed
life was emptiness, then you spoke and listened and heard
my reply and gradually my mind defrosted until it feels as if
I can talk again - thank you for being the listener and critic
I can rely on and for the opportunity to listen to you as you
faithfully coach creating rhythms within lines - without ever
breaking the enjambments and now I'm present in my

Own world, embracing life as an illusion of symbols which
my head must express in terms that rational people can't
understand as images leave them nonplussed and poetry
is an alien concept to them which they replace with cold
words bereft of any feeling and therefore to me bereft of
all meaning, you make it true that I FEEL, therefore I am,
only when feeling enables us to set priorities and make
choices, are we truly alive…