Three Poems

The poem ‘Gratitude’ explores thankfulness not as a passive expression of appreciation, but rather as a living, tangible prospect. To me, gratitude is less a permanent feeling of simply acknowledging our surroundings than the profound fear of losing them, whether that be the people we love, the places we inhabit, or the privileges and responsibilities we have. The poem reflects the presence of gratitude woven into my mind and heart, and the kind of effect such a feeling can hold over oneself. The way that gratitude is personified as something that ‘blooms, pulses, and reverbrates’ demonstrates the lack of stability that follows gratitude- a fleeting feeling that goes as soon as it appears. The central idea lies in the paradox that gratitude is often labelled intangible, yet it becomes so tethered to reality and physical closeness that it becomes less abstract and more an embodiment, taking form in the things and prospects we love and fear losing the most. The poem grows from the insistence of gratitude and how we are often told to ‘be grateful’, as if gratitude is something that can be forced upon someone, rather than an emotion that is often the result of the fear of absence, and flows to the idea of imploring yourself not to relinquish it, a subtle realisation. The poem employs metaphor to endow gratitude with a human-like quality, as in words such as “imitating the reverbration of a distant hush”, relating gratitude to a distant hush, a subtle yet omnipresent river in the back of one’s mind, also employing melancholic sound devices to enhance the harmonic flow of gratitude, the unpredictability and tentativeness of the emotion. Furthermore, by threading subtle visual imagery into lines such as ‘it blooms’, ‘occasionally floating into consciousness, captivating me’, the poem aims to reinforce the illustration of gratitude as a living, fragile being, uncertain yet beautiful. By repeatedly citing ‘gratitude’ by the end of each stanza, the poem moreover seeks to demonstrate the elaborate and uncertain nature of gratitude, embedding the word in the reader’s mind, helping them understand its profundity and epistemic uncertainty. The poem relies heavily on the abstract representation of gratitude as an uncertain and transient, yet tangible, prospect, urging the reader not to underestimate the power of this crucial emotion while simultaneously conveying the difficulty of grasping it and how it often relies on absence to uproot itself. Ultimately, by utilising devices such as personification, metaphor, imagery, repetition, juxtaposition, enjambment, sound devices, and motif, the poem conveys the essence of loving while we are still here, of recognising the ephemeral, fragile, and uncertain nature of existence.

This poem emerged from the concept behind conversations that hold no dialect, yet convey the strongest of words. I am incredibly drawn to the role that simply body language and facial expressions play when conversing with one another, and I wondered if the presence of speech is truly necessary, whether it is possible to understand a person just by their demeanour and mannerisms. In ‘Unspoken Conversations’, the proximity of the cat becomes an embodiment of this very idea, with her aloofness, indifference, and poise mirroring the speaker’s internal turmoil and distress. Their interaction unfolds like a dance, where the distance between them is rather a form of closeness. The poem personifies the cat as a human being, reflecting human mannerisms and gestures, yet, as a cat, it emphasises the subtlety of conversations that hold no dialect, as the cat, ideologically, cannot speak but, subjectively, seems to have a conversation with the speaker. The poem relies on the use of heavy extended imagery to direct the reader into imagining the scene playing out (‘breezes into my room’, ‘locks eyes with me’, ‘mysterious looks’, ‘shuffling through these papers’), mirroring the structure and ease with which conversations uproot themselves in everyday lives. The central conceit of the poem is the reflection of profound conversations held routinely, though without dialogue. The poem repeatedly utilises metaphor to relate the alluded conversation to a dance (‘shuffling through,’ ‘rehearsing mutual indifference,’ ‘as if this were a dance,’ ‘she waltzed in’) to further emphasise the frivolous nature of the dialect that takes place within conversations, and how two beings can participate in a comprehensive exchange by merely body language, imitating the way a dance takes place. By employing devices such as personification, metaphor (cat symbolising being a metaphor/vessel for the whole prospect of silent conversations), simile, imagery, and juxtaposition (juxtaposes the contrast in body language between the speaker and its cat by depicting their kinesics), the poem reveals the power of silence and how it can become its own language, capable of expressing a variety of emotions without a singular spoken word.

‘Catharsis’ is an exploration of an overthinker’s mind as both a burden and a subtle force of strength and reinforcement. The poem originates from my desire to externalise and epitomise the invisible chaos of thoughts, something omnipresent in my mind, yet nevertheless so hidden and private; present yet absent. By constructing the extended metaphor of the mind as a ‘cobweb’, introspection is portrayed as an intricate, living, everlasting existence. Personifying emotions (‘teeter and trot like merchant carts in an overbustling market’) mirrors their existence within minds like my own; internal sensations that are kinetic, unstable, and erratic. Through simile (embodyment of the mind as a layered cobweb, ‘elastic stretched too far’), and visceral imagery (‘vise cuffed around the throat’ and ‘hot tears deep in freefall’), the poem attempts to embody and personify anxiety as a physical presence rather than an internal chaos, giving a weight and sensation to emotions often dismissed as intangible. Yet the poem grows from the burdens of emotion, introducing a shift towards the prospect of resilience amid turmoil. By perpetuating extended metaphor (‘labyrinth’, ‘each though tugging at the silk’ and ‘a gossamer of light’- referring to a materials begotten from spiders), the poem takes upon a different stance, illustrating thought not as a presence to fear, but rather a presence to embrace and welcome, bringing rise to the underlying guidance and enlightenment that follows overthinking, reframing the overactive mind as a labyrinth capable of not only chaos, but of compassion, depth, and regeneration.