By Brian L. Cummins
Artwork by N.I.AM KUNST (published in Issue 01)
Read the piece first!
HEAL by N.I.AM KUNST
There is a numbness there now
There is a sadness
There is a heaviness
And there is pain
Lodged into my ribcage and
Shielding my heart from everything.
A bone cage of my own making
To break out, would be to break
Myself open
To crack her
To prize her open!
To win and to be freed once again!
To be reborn!
To shed and to forget
Everything from before!
And everything ever again!
Open, opened and opening!
To be set free!
To let myself be free!
Like the birds on the breeze!
The buds on the trees!
All of the flowers!
And all of the leaves!
Golden, Roses, Blooming for me!
With me!
And in me!
*
Through her, with her, in her,
In the Unity of my Body and I
All Glory and Honour is Yours!
Almighty Mother!
Forever and Ever
Amen!
*
And there you are now
You sweet, sweet sinner
And you cannot crack her
You will not break her
And you cannot forget her
You will not cage her
You can only be her.
Be every blessed part of her.
Photography by N.I.AM KUNST (published in Issue 01)
When it came time to submission-hunting from the team, we were looking for two things over everything else; a clear representation of theme, and uniqueness. When we came across Niamh's submission, we had struck a goldmine.
Her poem 'Heal' was the first piece I got to explore, and immediately I knew it would be a finalist.
The poem begins with a tone of realisation, a becoming into oneself/one's emotions. This feeling is a very relatable one, and I was very impressed at the instantly clear perspective that she chose to explore 'Reanimation' from.
Every word has an intended purpose that allows you to envision and empathise with the author's experience. We go on a journey as a reader with this poem. The sudden realisation felt almost immediately shifts to panic and self-blame. 'A bone cage of my own making'. We can sense the feeling of anxiety behind the words, focusing on everything wrong with you, and what you haven't done to fix it, rather than what has caused it.
We move on to find a tone of hope, but as a reader, you don't trust the hope. Niamh achieves this by her use of exclamation points. The repetitive and non-conforming periods add a lot of depth to the piece. We see them over and over again, like a preacher; I'm being loud so you should listen because this is all factual.
"To be set free!
To let myself be free!"
We can see the author's intentions clearly with these two lines. The first line opens up the opportunity for others to save you, suggesting you're aware that what you're struggling with is not your fault, but the anxious exclamation points are present, and we move to the next line, once again reverting to self-blame.
Photography by N.I.AM KUNST
Niamh seems to take the 'preacher' theme that I've subjectively taken from this and ran with it. We see a lot more religious themes and sayings, which makes the reader think: is this a journey of self-discovery through religious virtue?
But, I think the true message is a little bit more subliminal. The usage of prayer, separate from the rest of the poem, in its own segment, with the inclusion of some exclamation points, feels like a moment of rebelliousness, accepting that how you're feeling isn't fully up to you.
After another brief breather, we finish with the last verse closing the poem on a note of wholeness. We feel the author has found the truth of their emotions and knows how to move onward in life while accepting them as unchangeable, humane, emotions, and we have undeniable confidence as readers that the author has also found their strength.
As a reader, the journey was straightforward, we got the message, but as a writer, you can notice those little tweaks that can completely alter a reader's experience. Utilising these methods in unique ways adds unlimited depth to bodies of work that allow people to explore them further, as I've done here.
Reanimation was an issue where we wanted our readers to feel a sense of change, and Niamh executed this perfectly.
Comments