A Salutation Denying Exchange

My original writing exercise for my Senior project in writing poetry was to write in the style of another poet. At 20 Adrienne Rich was my favorite. I wrote this poem in the style of her poem- "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning". What I forgot about was the Original "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne! WOW! What a revelation at 55 compared to 20. It brings to mind Dr. Wroten and Survey or English Literature 1 and 2. You can't find find Adreine Rich's poem on line because of copy write laws but you can read John Donne. Then to read what I wrote at 20 is an insight for me. So much emotion caught up in it all and how much has not changed. The past...
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/mourning.php

A Salutation Denying Exchange

Adrienne Rich at my 20

My empty isolation. Your false affection.

The crowds fled and left me.

Clothes worn to attract.
Smiles to vacant air.

They gave me a Coke to ease my thirst.


Before I drink this I want to say:

The sorrow of a goodbye never lasts,

The I’ll remember and write never occurs,

The relief on the glass that brings me no comfort.

No holding. No remembering.

Stained glass in a ditch of disposables.


A final word: the bottle is a metaphor called people.

These symbols remain: cradle, cell, casket.

When I see a person I am thinking of an act.

When I hear glass break I know it is gone.

I could think: these bottles have other uses

But what they are I do not know.

To be remembered somewhere, sometime.