Raining Inside Poem by Nika McGuin

it's a fine poem. short and, not sweet but..., with hope. i'm very curious if it is about you...now or some time passed. hmm? i'm also intrigued by..my conflicted internal atmosphere. i wonder what THAT is about. to MyPoemList and into (perhaps as the last poem for January) my/our Showcase [for and, usually, by PH poets]. Thanks for 'letting' me borrow it. bri :)

sadness rarely touches me; maybe it has to do with my hard heart [not hard in all things]. of course i think i've been accused of having NO HEART! can ya believe it? ok, i shouldn't have asked. i didn't read much of DB's comment, but all of TB's. i like Tom's better. sadness is difficult to deal with for many (duh!) . it seems time can work pretty well if other things in life are reasonably good. (to be continued) ....

This is a masterful poem. First, you express deep emotion in controlled language. Second, you make the personal universal. These are the two faces of poetry, one face is turned inward and sees S-E-L-F; the other face turns outward and sees the W-O-R-L-D. For a caring person one will follow the other. But this poem us close to despair and I wish you were free of that heaviness of spirit which causes despair. At the end of ZORBA THE GREEK the Englishman has lost everything he wanted: a lover, a working silver mine, self-respect, etc. but he turns to his friend (and mentor) and says: ZORBA, TEACH ME TO DANCE. And that's how the film ends. It's not a solution, it doesn't change anything, it's just a pastime, but it's also an assertion that pushes despair aside and releases a wild joy. Once a water pipe broke in my classroom and a stream of water poured out. I called the office, took my students to a dry area then went back. And there was the assistant principal, alone, standing in ankle deep water, staring at it. Doing nothing, getting inundated. He was at the end of his tether. ZORBA, TEACH ME TO RESIST. You see, Nika, the part of your poem which faces the world already reached me. It changed me. It gave me understanding and h-o-p-e. Let it do that for you too.

I know how you feel, Nika. My one companion, my cat, Mr Purry died a few days ago. The storms of grief are hard to bear. You have described it well.