Having Learned from Icarus

[_Shannon_]

Having Learned from Icarus

I breathe you in, slow and deep,
and hold you inside, as power-
transforming
dark into beatitude.

Reaching way down into meaty
untouched places-
expanding the bones
where courage is contained.

I breathe out fuel and fire
in a deep sigh of release-
contracting
back into solemness.

Vowing not to melt these
fragile wings we've been given,
I rise up from you-
Soaring away from the sun.

[everyadventure]

Some powerful imagery here, but I'm unsure about the tone of the speaker. It seems to be about finding your own strength, but the "breathing in" feels romantic, as though you WANT to keep this person with you, within you. Is it about love? Independence? Moving on? All of the above?

[David Strugnell]

cool lotta goggle

A Prophetic Narration About The Fate of Fornicators20 Jul 2005 ... The people were coming to the carrion to eat from it, and they were leaving the grilled meat untouched. The Prophet asked: Who are they, ...

[PrinceMyshkin]

I admire the strength and lucidness of most of this but, like EA, I'm somewhat puzzled by the resolution: flying away from the sun - to return again some other time?

[_Shannon_]

David...I am kinda unnerved by that...lolol!

EA, PRince---it's about a lot of things...but mostly about leaving a relationship, while it's good...before it all blows up....taking in all of the good of it, being better for it and walking away before it goes bad.

[PrinceMyshkin]

EA, PRince---it's about a lot of things...but mostly about leaving a relationship, while it's good...before it all blows up....taking in all of the good of it, being better for it and walking away before it goes bad.

I don't mean this as a comment on the poem but how does the speaker know the relationship is bound to go bad? Might there be some other poem investigating whether she subconsciously needs for it to go bad?

Mind you, back to the poem, my inner feminist wants to know how did the other - I assume it's a male - get to be the sovereign of the universe, the source of light and heat?

[everyadventure]

Mind you, back to the poem, my inner feminist wants to know how did the other - I assume it's a male - get to be the sovereign of the universe, the source of light and heat? Man is, and has always been, the center of the universe!

Shannon, I can see all that in your poem now, the breathing in and holding of what is good, and the desire to leave... because believing that it could stay that wonderful, well, that's hubris... and asking for more than what you've been given, well, that's just greed...

I'm feeling an undercurrent here of someone who doesn't expect happiness, perhaps the speaker feels she doesn't deserve it?