Tags
acceptance, escape, future, healing, letting go, metaphor, past, reflection, self-knowledge, taking back control, therapy
Life Sentence
Source: Google Images
The past was nearly always tense. The future seldom perfect. Life became a sentence imprisoning subject and predicate: which often times were punctuated by dashes, question marks and ellipses …
The full-stops when they came were soft and sudden. They crept up slowly behind, blocking the way, preventing progress of any kind and making the escape route barely visible: an abrupt pin-prick in a confusing world.
Clear and present danger alleviated, those dots and dashes now form the much longed for and welcome SOS signalling pathways, prising open those prison bars, and like innocent inmates – embracing freedom – make a dash for the exit vowing to colonise the state of freedom.
~ Marie Williams – 2017
ComeFlywithme 
How liberating that dash is Marie. And here I come from nowhere barging right in !!! 😀
I love reading this. I was drawn to your title. By itself one could read it in so many ways. I’m reminded of a poem I once wrote after attending a funeral. The tombstone might read 1936 – 2015. I was intrigued by that dash – that in the end our lives are reduced to a dash yet so much can stand behind that dash. A great metaphor for telling one’s life story and on that note I end with !
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Thank you Chevvy. Your kind comment has made me smile – I love that this resonated with you and thanks for sharing your ‘tombstone’ moment – very profound! 🙂
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Oh you’ve got my mind churning about what my life sentence would look like. I was so tempted to write something but time is illusive at the moment. But thank you for the many prompts through the reflections in your poem.😀
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I’m flattered that my ‘life sentence’ is serving as a filip to your vivid imagination – why don’t you jot down a sentence or two and when time is a little more accommodating, surprise and delight the blogging world with your thoughts, my dear? 🙂
ps. forgot to mention that I really liked those exclamation marks in your earlier comment – should’ve used a few of those!!! :)))
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Oh I would love to put some words down. I guess I think “exclamation marks” when I think of my life sentence and that covers a range of emotions, situations etc so I would love to give it a try.😀
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Using as a metaphor the writer’s tool — the sentence — you’ve captured in deceptively simple terms the ups and downs of life, the challenges an abusive history puts in our way, and the ultimate triumph of freedom over that past. A wonderful essay. ❤
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Thank you Anna. I am so humbled by your lovely and insightful (as always) comment. ❤
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I doubt that da Vinci was humbled by the compliments on his Mona Lisa. He’s probably still grinning somewhere. Only you, my dear friend, would be humbled by a truthful statement about your own handiwork. You, after all, are the artist. I’m just an admirer. ❤
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If I were to grade your comment – it would have to be an A+. You are too kind. Thank you so much, Anna. ❤
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This is fantastic Marie, right up my wordy street!
“The full-stops when they came were soft and sudden. They crept up slowly behind, blocking the way” – Lovely stuff.
– Esme enjoying the words upon the Cloud
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Esme, thank you so much! So happy to know that this resonates with you and I like nothing better than being ‘up on your wordy street’.
Budge up on that cloud – I’m coming to join you, after a compliment like that! 🙂
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And very welcome you are too misses. It may be a compliment, but also a fact, for Esme deals only in the truth, (apart from when she uses her expansive vocabulary of essential lies – not needed when commenting those mind you).
– Esme laughing and budging up upon the Cloud
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‘Essential lies’ – I like that! I may need to borrow a few of those sometime. hahaha
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Make that dash to freedom and learn to feel again Marie 💕🙏💕
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Thanks so much Val. Your lovely comment is truly appreciated.💕🙏💕
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Well composed, really well thought out and scribed. Life. In a nutshell. ❤
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Aww thank you Bela for such a truly encouraging comment. Hugs x
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Where is Bela’s comment, Marie? I see nothing here from her at all.
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You may well ask, Hariod. WordPress has been up to its old tricks again. As I was replying to Bela’s comment, WordPress sent it to ‘trash’. But it was still there after I replied, so I assumed that all was well despite having been told that it had been deleted – because it was obviously still there. I now see that I was wrong. I’ll have to try and sort this out – thanks for alerting me.
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This is a lovely concept, Marie, and made me think about the idea of life as a story. That tends to be how we regard ourselves, I suspect, as when we describe both ourselves and how we are, to others. We see ourselves as a continuum of a punctuated narrative, not only in our description of ourselves, but also in how we regard our self as an inner state of being. And yet when we look, when we really look, there’s only a flux of ephemera, and no story existent in the moment — that all gets fabricated post hoc. I have an idea that the story we create of ourselves, and also in our convincing ourselves of its actuality (i.e. that the story itself is ‘me’), is a source of quite a lot of suffering in the world, as we incessantly compare the narrated image of ourselves to others and to idealisations of how we think we ought to be. Anyway, I’ve prattled on a bit, but like I said, you got me thinking here. H ❤
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First of all dear H, thank you so much for taking time from your busy schedule to comment on this. I really do appreciate your swift response to my earlier enquiry about your well-being.:)
I do enjoy your take on my writing and am always amazed at all the different perspectives you offer – some of which had not even occurred to me.
I could sit and read you ‘prattling’ all day, so I’m genuinely pleased that my thoughts gave you the opportunity to do so.
I hope the writing is going well, and I shall pop over to Bela’s from time to time to see how it is progressing …:)❤
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That’s quite an interesting intercourse from you two. I wonder if we are often too hard on our selves and people see us more kindly. Looking forward, H, to your story ( line)
I thought you and Marie were going to write something together????
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Howdy Jackie! Write together? That’s a novel idea . . .
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Amusing comment Hairdo and a most unpredictable response. I would have expected something more, avant garde from one such as yourself! 🙂
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What do you want, Haiku?
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Looks like you already wrote it H !
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To convey one’s mood
In seventeen syllables
Is very diffic
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Haiku not have done better if I tried …
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Brilliant! I loves me puns! 🙂
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Jackie, did you say riot together? That would be fun …:)
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Cleverly punctuated dear Marie.. 🙂 hope all is well in your world.. Love and Blessings sent your way my friend.. xx Sue
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Dear Sue, so lovely to see you here and thank you very much for your complimentary comment. All is well with me dear friend and I hope it’s the same for you. I’ll be paying you a visit very soon … hugs, M xx
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No worries at all Marie.. just so happy all is well with you.. Love right back.. ❤
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Very cleverly crafted. The language tickles my brain, dances with my eyes and sings in my ears. I hope you are well and enjoying the beginnings of a lovely summer. In love and light Cheryle
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Thank you so much Cheryle. I’m really happy that this resonated with you and your lovely comment is much appreciated. I too hope that the summer months inspire you, enabling your soul to dance and sing at every opportunity. ❤
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Words are living things. You brought some ideas to life right there.
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Gary, thanks so much. You are very kind.
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Clever stuff, young lady, clever stuff!
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Thank you Jackie. I try, you know …:)❤
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Can anyone doubt the talent of this lovely wordsmith? You really do have a way with words and that’s no lie 🙂
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Lady G, you are too kind. Thanks so much for your encouraging words.:)❤
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All true and sincere 🙂
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genius 🙂
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Aww thank you Da-AL. :)❤
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Not nearly as clever as your post– but sincere 😀
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Fantastic, Marie….so creative and abstract enough to be intriguing while leaving enough room to read between the lines…thanks for sharing 🙂
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Thanks so much for reading and your kind and encouraging comments Truly. You and your comments are truly appreciated. 🙂
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You are so sweet and kind….thank you 🙂
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