The Arrow
The arrow tracked
the deepest hurt
grazing the heart
on its way down
Not as a message
from Cupid’s bow
a fatal blow
or target practice
The arrow landed
on its mark
in a child’s graveyard
of forgetfulness
Pinned and pierced
Fear unmasked
The arrow’s tip
like a scalpel cuts
It opens the path
to a phantom bullet
and lifts the hurt
to new awareness
____Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United /dVerse Poets Pub
January 19th, 2024 1:52 am
A piercing well described! Hopefully the new awareness might then allow the child within to finally work through and heal from the hurt.
January 19th, 2024 7:00 am
Sounds like it may be a good thing to happen for the “hurt, lifted to new awareness,” can now be healed.
January 19th, 2024 9:56 am
The piercing arrow is a stark reminder of how painful it is when old wounds reopen and are struck with understanding anew.
January 19th, 2024 10:09 am
I’ve often been caught by surprise at the intensity of the pain of unearthed old wounds. Even the ones I thought were good and buried sometime rise up when I least expect them.
January 22nd, 2024 1:17 pm
I so relate to Rommy’s post. I have experienced it and wondered at how painful it can still be.
January 22nd, 2024 1:29 pm
I see the arrow as the GPS to the unconscious.
January 24th, 2024 10:29 am
I too relate to Rommy’s comment here.
February 1st, 2024 9:25 pm
That last 2 lines resonated with me:
and lifts the hurt
to new awareness
February 1st, 2024 10:28 pm
There is always the hope that pain will alchemize to wisdom.
February 2nd, 2024 7:01 am
Rommy said it the best; the poem also reminded me of dealing with depression and how therapists often remind that most often one is not ‘ cured ‘ just ‘healed, for now’.
February 2nd, 2024 9:07 am
I know that arrow and its path, and I love how you shine a laser focus on its razor sharpness that can reappear out of nowhere – and yet give us the hope, as msjadeli points out, that it will alchemize into something meaningful, an awakening, a sense of self, wisdom.
February 2nd, 2024 11:38 am
The relief in the last stanza … yes (wonder if it is what only time can provide)
February 2nd, 2024 1:45 pm
The intensity, the unexpected force with which it hits, the pain .. oh the pain .. make it go away, please go away.
February 2nd, 2024 2:01 pm
Very well done.
February 2nd, 2024 2:15 pm
Awareness is the arrow’s gift, for pain is knowledge, isn’t it? Enjoyed this, it read like a parable.
February 4th, 2024 8:44 am
Colleen,
Your use of metaphor, specifically the arrow as a symbol of pain and awakening, adds such emotional resonance to your poem. Just wonderful!
Much love,
David