This is Not a Memoir

June 1, 2010 · by Joanna Paterson · in

No, this is not a memoir.

These are simply lines of pulsing verse
That capture a moment
That paint with a heartbeat
That tell not a story
But the feeling of a moment

So no, this is not a memoir.

Remaining baffled by its form
And not knowing where the start is
Not seeing where the end is
And lost in swhirls and mishaps
In false roads taken and too many u-turns
And doors slammed and trap doors opening
And times when I’ve back tracked
And years of going round in circles
I cannot tell a life in plot lines and
Straight lines
With beginnings and endings
With characters developing instead of
Baffling and bellowing

So, no this is not a memoir
That runs like a story
No,
These are thundering verses
For times when life thundered
And quiet soft poems
For moments of wonderment, beauty and love
The moments of life times
The moments we live by
That aren’t told in stories
But that make up our lives

And no, this is not a memoir

It’s a story that might tell itself
But only if I let it
In its own pulsing rhythm
In its own repetitions
In its myriad openings
And moments without end.

~~~

After a year or more of beating myself up for not being able to write memoir, I’m abandoning the form.

I’m inventing my own.

If I ever tell my story, I think it’ll come out in verse :-)

~~~

Have you ever felt a burning need to reinvent a form?

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