Soft Play Hands – Written Wednesday 13th September 2023 (Aged 48)

James Garratt,

Soft Play Hands

emotionally –
i tend to feed off my own creative fat
remember though,
i am your friend and lover
and that we parry,
with a backhanded bat
because something was left behind
where,
as a child i once sat
in the decades dazzled by dance
and accompanied by a slow clap
you will not lose me
i will always make my way back
emotionally –
i join you,
avoiding the accident blackspots
where my wellbeing is one more fatality
these days,
i am fighting back
and i chastise those clever fuckers
with our backhanded bat
i am the person –
who finds themselves wrapped in paper
carrying the jug
and lifting the emotional labour
but tinsel covered crosses
does not mean i am the gleaming saviour
we do one more dance
where i sign a reality waiver
and emotionally,
although i am often in pieces
i fall easily, back into your soft play hands
and once again, you iron out my creases
and give topography to my foreign lands




James Garratt – Wednesday 13th September 2023


More poems at
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/


More about this blog, The Boy Behind the Glasses, here
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/2020/01/08/the-boy-behind-the-glasses-an-introduction/


More poems from 2023 here
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/category/poems-and-writing-2023/

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Published by James Garratt

I am a 40 something sometime writer. I live in the South West of the UK but originally I am from Essex.

20 Comments

      2. Thank you. I’m very pleased with this. I read it out loud and recorded it and then edited it as I played it and listened. Unusual for me and you can see my notes on the original handwritten poem.

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  3. The turmoil you describe so vividly. The softness in your words that shows when you adress the one who irons out your creases , the fierceness when you talk about these clever fucks, the struggle, when you go back to your childhood…… the outstanding imagery, the excellent choice of words. This has many layers… and gets more, every time you read it.

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      2. It’s funny because a lot of anything I write has a specific meaning – some of it words and phrases that work for me or I find interesting. But as you described there’s an over all meaning. It sort of makes sense to me I like using imagery to express myself. I like to leave space for words and phrases to sit in peoples heads.

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      3. … and that’s how it should be done – at least, in my book. Words never mean he same thing in two different minds… I think this is very interesting – love doing it as well. There should always be breathing room in poetry – room to grow. If it feels too tight, words lose color and become one-dimensional to me.

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      6. That is a very good reason. I feel that. A lot of what I write is a way to calm the (sometimes overwhelming) chaos in my head & to work through stuff. Sometimes, it feels like I venture into new territory while writing – and that is so helpful.

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  4. Reading many poems from the younger versions of you lately, you have grown… and HOW you have grown. Please do not take what I just said the wrong way – I really do enjoy what the younger you wrote (you said, people commented more on poems you wrote back then)… but for me, this is “the stuff”. Right here.

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