This is Your Ode
written by: Grace Sampson
@graceKSampson
Dedicated to those who never see their worth, and who wait around for something better
Might it have been you –
There?
Standing alone, or else
Masqueraded, shaded,
All at once protected and deeply
Terrified, of the presence of
Other people? I wish I had
Paid more close attention.
Overcoming
Me
Over – touching
Me
Overwhelming
You- that is what I
Am best at, skilled
At, Gifted at. Saying all
The wrong things.
Or, Saying too many half-
Alright things.
Maybe, after all,
It was you who
Didn’t possess
Those skills.
I wanted to know
If the things I did,
The unmistakable visions,
And truth
That spilled from me:
Was it the right thing
To do back then?
I just want to go back.
To be lost in the sea of
Our fellow first years on
Campus
That week. What if we
Shared a glance, if I
Passed you a sheet of
Paper, a pen,
A lifeline.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
Inspired by Ted Hughes’ (observation of an American being): ‘Fulbright Scholars’ from the collection, Birthday Letters (1998). I could not have written this poem without the kind-spirited person that inspired it, my time delightfully consumed at NUI Galway, from 2017-2020, and the gentle spirit of Ted Hughes, that is often very close to me, while I write, and where I write.
- This is Your Ode - May 8, 2021
