Donald Harbour Poetry

“I hope I can be the autumn leaf, who looked at the sky and lived. And when it was time to leave, gracefully it knew life was a gift.” ~ Dodinsky

Damaged goods

Posted on 6 January 2010 by Donald Harbour

Can one really, really
start over? Life jealously guards
efforts to start over. It is a road
rutted with bottomless mire,
mud holes of experiences, jaundice
rock slides of opinions blocking
any symbolism of starting over.
The burden of relationship baggage
is a terminal load slowing progress.
The painful realization is we all
are chained to the past. That gigantic
ball of mistakes and emotional scars
tethered to any open door opportunity
of starting over. It allows only a crack
until it slams shut yanking hope back
to reality. The reason is simple,
all of us are damaged goods.

Copyright: 2010, Donald Harbour

12 thoughts on “Damaged goods”

James Brush on 7 January 2010 at 10:43 AM said:

I like the line about life jealously guarding efforts to start over which is sadly very true. It can be done, but it’s not easy.

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Mark on 7 January 2010 at 12:24 PM said:

Great poem, Donald.

And it is true, we do fight efforts to change ourselves.

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derrick2 on 7 January 2010 at 12:45 PM said:

Hi Donald,

We are all chained to the past no matter how much we may try to convince ourselves otherwise. We can plaster over the cracks, apply a lick of paint but it’s all there underneath.

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Tumblewords on 7 January 2010 at 2:43 PM said:

So true. Nicely written piece of clarity and attempt to rewrite the past in order to overcome the future. And, yes, we are, probably.

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Deb on 7 January 2010 at 11:09 PM said:

I’m not one of those rose-colored glasses gals, so your poem resonated with me. But I suppose I have a shy optimism, too, for I looked for the sliver, and found “of starting over. It allows only a crack” and I’ll take that, too.

Sharp and clear. Good work, sir.

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Nelle on 8 January 2010 at 3:56 PM said:

Do you ever wonder where we even get the idea of undamaged?

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Carolee on 8 January 2010 at 9:03 PM said:

you ask a good question: can we really start over? the answer is: we keep trying!

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Cynthia Short on 9 January 2010 at 1:42 PM said:

Painful to read as it is all so true…
Written very well and heartbreaking…

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wayne on 9 January 2010 at 6:03 PM said:

nicely done Donald…with a great question…without any answer from this guy….BUT…I don’t want to start over….even the bad has been good….I think….take care my friend

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Irene on 9 January 2010 at 6:10 PM said:

Clear eyed realist..

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lawrence gladeview on 10 January 2010 at 11:13 AM said:

donald enjoyed this introspective offering. the metaphor of the individual as a rabbit so to speak with hope serving as the carrot on the stick is vivid and relatable, as hope embodies personal mission. the casual wisdom and language throughout give the voice behind the words a playful authoritative perspective. -lawrence

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ravenswingpoetry on 11 January 2010 at 3:23 PM said:

Donald, you are absolutely right. We are all damaged goods. I think you built up well to that final line.

I think that we resort to believing some sort of salvation. Some of us, it’s through religion, some through personal epiphany, some through coming to face the cold hard truths about ourselves, and in other ways — to wander through any open doors, to be strong enough to handle the ” gigantic/ball of mistakes and emotional scars/tethered to any open door opportunity/of starting over”. Otherwise, we go insane.

Thank you for sharing. I enjoyed reading this.

-Nicole

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