Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. Today’s featured poet is Amy Newman.
Newman is a NIU English professor. She recently published her poetry collection An Incomplete Encyclopedia of Happiness and Unhappiness. This is Amy’s third book with the publisher Persea, but she has a total of six books. Here's her poem "The Letting Go."
Somehow I managed to let go of you.
You said you loved me deeply, but it was
not true, not true, not true, not true, not true.
The bees enjoy the pollens they accrue,
but I'm forgetting you with each day's buzz,
somehow. I managed to let go of you.
Regret's a dark, sweet nectar I fly through.
I'll make of it a honey labeled Was
Not True, Not True, Not True, Not True, Not True.
Let's inscribe those two words as a tattoo:
blurred inks, indelible as my heart thaws.
Somehow I managed. To let go of you,
I'm pouring water on this crazy glue,
this airtight seal, whose lifetime guarantee's
not true. Not true! Not true! Not true! Not true!
my heartbeat says. Oh f*** its point of view,
insistent muscle, pumping out red laws.
Somehow I managed to let go of you.
(Not true, not true, not true, not true, not true.)
