The Leaving Women
The Leaving Women started as a single poem and grew into an idea as I wrote more poems in a series. I have always liked the idea of telling a story through a series of poems. No dialogue, no plot devices, no world building. Just a series of poems that connect like a story. Like a concept album, a rock opera in poetry.
In The Leaving Women, we have two women who meet on a train, the rebellious Shelley and quiet Leigha. They are both leaving lives and lovers behind to head for something unknown. They find a kindred spirit in each other and as the train carries them away from their pasts, they share their stories.
Shelley gets her name from the famed poet Percy Shelley, who has always held a special place in my heart. Leigha is named after his good friend Leigh Hunt, also a poet, but one who enjoyed much less fame than Percy. Much like the balance between the two women in our tale. I won’t say much more about them because I want you to meet them for yourself.
Poem Samples
I will no longer apologize for my fire.
I will no longer cower before my own anger.
I will own the spark that rises up
like a shield against your condescension,
You shoot arrows and expect me
to accept the bleeding wounds
that come with your precision.
from the poem, For Too Long We’ve Been the Peacemakers
I was never very good at taking
pictures of the moon,
but this night the focus was crystal clear.
“I don’t know if I like you or
if you just taste like a memory,”
I told him through the ruffled feathers
of my second hand boa,
on a night when the milky way loomed
large across his freckled face.
from the poem, A Day and a Night on Purgatory Road
I made a man out of air
and breathed him in to
expand my belief that
someday I would exhale
him into flesh and bone.
from the poem, Man of Air
Read or Download
