Hello,
I really enjoyed your poem. It has great pace and the words ring really true.

Great poem Katharina. I love the topic that you address of self-doubt in the face of trying to be confident in our beliefs. I could relate to this very well.

They rhythm was beautiful and the short lines gave good impact.

Well done and thanks for sharing.

Hi Katharina, this poem made me think of someone stuck at home for a long time with lock down. Learning to adjust to that way of life behind a zoom screen, and then suddenly having to enter the world again and be with people again, and wondering if they could cope. I am not sure if this is what you were writing about – but it is the way I interpreted your poem. I really enjoyed it, well done:)

Hi Katharina

This beautifully demonstrates the capacity we have to adapt to change. We ‘find’ the resources we need to get through and, sometimes, it’s not as bad as we suspected it might be. But the doubt lingers.

Nice poem.

Martin

Katharina, are you living my life? ha ha! Really describes us re-entering the world at a time we (kind of) wish we could remain less involved. Nice pace, effective, certainly conveys how I feel. Thank you.

Hi Katharina,

I love your descriptions and the feelings evoked! I felt the weight of tiredness at the beginning and restful, almost playful by the end. Very nice piece indeed!!

Great poem Katharina. I love the theme as we are encouraged to do, do and do more until we burn out and here I get the message that taking a rest is acceptable and a must.

I enjoyed the rhythm and rhyme, I just missed the rhyme with knows and pause – but maybe that was the point considering the words.

My favourite line:
Doing it all remains a fantasy. – isn’t it just!

Thanks for sharing.

Hello Katharina,
Well done for managing to get good rhymes in your acrostic. I’m not sure that current thinking is that we should sit and watch life go by, but I appreciate the sentiment.

rightly expressed ..in these times

Hello Katharina,
I like the way your poem turns at the end in an unexpected direction. It started fairly light-hearted (if it possibly can be in these times) but finished with a serious thought. Well done.

A good expression of the lockdown experience, good job!, i love the ending!,

Very good synopsis of the last year plus! And I believe it followed the traditional sonnet form. Well done; I enjoyed reading.
Wanda Lovan

Interesting, I like how you used foreign. I think everyone has a bit of an enigmatic side.

Hello Katharina,
I would like to know more about how the one who is ‘one of them’ lent you definition! This is a fascinating concept – I like the image you have created with the phrase: ‘the chatter bass soprano fog of pubs’. Well done with the poem.

Hi Katharina, you have described the experience of feeling “interesting” in a new country very aptly, and also the way that feeling wears off after one starts to blend in. I like the way you show the irony of how the very people who make one feel interesting are the same ones who guide you towards becoming “one of them.”
Your “chatter bass soprano fog” image is quite interesting; I like the way it resonates in the “swirl of mystery” at the end.
I liked this! 😀

Hi Katharina
I really like this poem. I like the rhythm of it, and it has a layered, rich meaning to it. It is the kind of poem that is enigmatic in itself, that then uncovers, revealing meaning. I think this is the most sophisticated use of the prompt I have read.

I hope you will get vaccines and got chance for long travel. Nice poem

Great poem; it hits the spot. I’ve received both vaccines, looking forward to a car trip this Spring.
Wanda

Well written and I love how bursting with life and hope the first haiku is as the others get more real/heavy. Keeping my fingers crossed for more widespread vaccination with you.

Hi Katharina,
Your haikus show up rich countries’ selfishness. I hope the scheme to ensure availability throughout the world takes off very soon. Well done for flagging this up with your series of haikus.

I like this. You express, in a few simple words, the depth of feeling we are all experiencing. One of the positives of the pandemic is that no matter where we live, we have a common experience.

Hello Katharina, You have summarised the pain and joy of having children!

Yes, indeed. Some lovely lines. Surfing on sheer delight. Sea twinkling silver. Tired lids like lead.

I relate to your poem. Parenthood truly is a mixture of pleasure and pain! Thank you for your poem.

I like your phrase “long lost treasure chest”. Later, when the turmoil of the learning years are past, when we reach grandparenthood, we remember the children years with different eyes and realize every moment we shared with our children was golden. Sometimes we would like to have a “do over” but we still cherish those irreplaceable times.