Clarity, Thy Name Is Daniel Poem by Elizabeth Sheaffer

Clarity, Thy Name Is Daniel

Rating: 3.5


Standing alone in an abandoned street,
The dark of night closing in...
Gazing up at the sky, trying to rein myself in...
My mind scattering like a million red birds aflutter.

You came walking up, as I lay there-
A soul I could easily relate to...
Insomnia linking us together-
So despised-but it brought us together.

I stood then, I stood; I rose from the depths.
I faced you; I stared at my future.
I sank then, I sank; I fell down into you.
I fell into you right there.

Deeper, deeper, I drowned myself in your eyes.
'Speak, ' I willed myself. I'd planned to speak,
Not to gape at this nighttime apparition-
Fawning like the schoolgirl I technically was...

You were there, we were there, abandoned street...
You took my hand and asked my story.
'I'm a girl. I'm nothing. I'm everything.
I'm here.'

'I'm here...' you whispered, and yes, it was true.
You, the only clear image in an unclear world.
You, my nighttime apparition, come to rescue me.
Come to save me from myself.

You're a dream...
Won't you be my reality?

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Greenwolfe 1962 22 August 2008

This isd an interesting plot but it has flaws. The writing is almost unconscious of what has been written before. If this is actually a style of writing, it is not long for this world. GW62

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Joseph Daly 20 April 2008

Elizabeth This is a great poem. I like the flow of it and there is a certain tightness to it that gives the narrative a sense of urgency. For that reason I would think that the last couple of lines (You're a dream.../Won't you be my reality?) are superfluous and really jar, giving the poem a real unsatisfactory ending (read it aloud, and you might see what I mean) . It ruins the flow as the narrative is flows quite dreamily and then is given this jolt of reality (if you like) and the impact is, in my opinion, both sudden and negative. ‘I stood then, I stood; I rose from the depths. I faced you; I stared at my future. I sank then, I sank; I fell down into you. I fell into you right there.’ This is great. It is completely different from the other stanzas in the way that it feels, it almost seems as if someone else wrote it. But that is great in the manner it is fixed in the piece.

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