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6.29.2011

i read this. and it took my breath away.



Give me the strongest cheese, the one that stinks best;
and I want the good wine, the swirl in crystal
surrendering the bruised scent of blackberries,
or cherries, the rich spurt in the back
of the throat, the holding it there before swallowing.
Give me the love who yanks open the door
of his house and presses me to the wall
in the dim hallway, and keeps me there until I'm drenched
and shaking, whose kisses arrive by the boatload
and begin their delicious diaspora
through the cities and small towns of my body.
To hell with the saints, with martyrs
of my childhood meant to instruct me
in the power of endurance and faith,
to hell with the next world and its pallid angels
swooning and sighing like Victorian girls.
I want this world. I want to walk into
the ocean and feel it trying to drag me along
like I'm nothing but a broken bit of scratched glass,
and I want to resist it. I want to go
staggering and flailing my way
through the bars and back rooms,
through the gleaming hotels and weedy
lots of abandoned sunflowers and the parks
where dogs are left off their leashes
in spite of the signs, where they sniff each
other and roll together in the grass, I want to
lie down somewhere and suffer for love until
it nearly kills me, and then I want to get up again
and put on that little black dress and wait
for you, yes you, to come over here
and get down on your knees and tell me
just how fucking good I look

Kim Addonizio


i first read it here.

28 comments:

Unknown said...

oh my god.

oh my god.

...

Erin said...

Damn.

Jenny said...

Wow.

christine said...

I was just telling a friend this this morning, "I want him to come to me. He knows I want him. Now I want him to show me how much he wants me." And all the rest will be...

ashleyTIA said...

Wow...powerful words.

Alex Byer said...

Dear baby jesus.

Alisha said...

loved it.

Jessica @ Little Maple Leaf said...

Oh my god this is amazing.
Brilliant, even!

Lauren and Tom said...

Love this!! I'm glad I'm lucky to have a husband who tells me often.

Candice said...

Whoa...

SNW said...

this ruled. thank you.

Ashley said...

what she said.

i love this. so powerful.

The Lewicutt's said...

love love love it. empowerment.

Sara said...

Wow. It's the perfect balance of emotion, and desire, and selfishness, and selflessness, even though we all know too well that there's no such thing as perfect balance in anything.

Sam | ashore said...

this is good - knock me off my feet good.

Anonymous said...

This is the pure definition of a woman. Both simple and complex. Beautiful.

As for you last post, I love doing things alone sometimes. Don't take these things for granted because someday you might not be alone anymore... and believe it or not, you might miss is sometimes.

mia said...

Wow this blew me away. Such evocative writing! It just screamed with emotion and passion. Thank you for sharing it :)

Sara Downton said...

i don't even have the words.

DINAH CLAIRE said...

That was so evocative of what is another lifetime for me now.

Rachael said...

Woooooooowwwww. That felt like a slap in the face, reminding me to live.

Jay said...

so true! i'd much rather regret what i did do, than what i didn't do anyway ;)

Marian said...

Oh wow. Speechless!

Katie said...

Sigh.

You're like a treasure hunter, bringing us back the most lovely bits of happy.

lizzy said...

hot damn.

Dee Paulino said...

I love it, all of it, specially this part:

" I want to lie down somewhere and suffer for love until it nearly kills me, and then I want to get up again and put on that little black dress and wait for you."

D&D said...

i knew you'd love this.
when you wrote this post:
http://or-so-i-feel.blogspot.com/2011/06/someday-ill-look-back-on-all-of-this.html

i commented to tell you to look up kim addonizio. i am telling YOU this poem, this poem sums it up perfectly. #love

The Rookie said...

I spent a week workshopping my poetry with her at a writing conference. She was brilliant. Human. And, when discussing my poems, intimidating as hell.

Beautiful poem.

Karla Khodanian said...

Good grief, this is fantastic. Thank you for sharing. I had to post it on my blog as well.

-Karla
http://casualbedlam.blogspot.com