# Are you ever glad, dear lady?



## toddm (Jun 9, 2011)

Are you ever glad, dear lady,
and filled with a delicious rapture 
upon waking, realizing
that life is new, is vibrant
and is full of fresh possibilities
for future endeavors?
Though you loved once,
strong and true,
your love now has set you free:
For the sky has opened wide
to receive your winged flight,
with the sun on your face
and a torrential wind at your back.
Your hope can thus sail high and far,
flying like a fallen star reborn,
returning to the heavens
to smile upon your good earth
with a radiance of glittering gladness.
So loving lady, 
are you ever glad,
now that he has died?


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## Trides (Jun 9, 2011)

Whoa, the last line is quite a wallop. The first hint of that was at "set you free."
Other bits I enjoyed:
"delicious rapture"--goes with the "reborn" and "heavens" stuff
"future endeavors"--I wonder if this suggests that the lady will love another in the future.
"your good earth"--reminds me of The Good Earth, in which a man is unfaithful to his wife. Perhaps that might be a reason for the lady to be glad that her love is dead.
And what about "_re_born?" "_Return_ to the heavens"? Has her love been holding her back or killing her in some way? Or am I just being cynical as usual?
Anyhow, good poem.


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## toddm (Jun 10, 2011)

Trides said:


> Whoa, the last line is quite a wallop.


 
I'm glad you said that, I was going for impact here -



> The first hint of that was at "set you free."


 
I was hoping that I didn't give away the ending by this hint - 

I was really impressed, Trides, with your very astute comments - you picked up on a lot of the subtleties, and you are right on target: the widow was married to a man whom she loved deeply, but who treated her terribly, was controlling, abusive, unfaithful, etc - she stayed with him out of love, and religious convictions - now he has died, but she does not allow herself to experience the legitimate freedom she now has been given - she feels guilty for any feeling of elation, presses it down and will not acknowledge it - so, no, you were not being cynical, but right on track.

About "good earth": I really enjoyed that insight - I am vaguely aware of the book "The Good Earth", and I think I may have studied it in high school or college, but I can't recall the story - but what you said about it totally fits, which floors me because it was completely unintended - I was considering changing "good" to something else, because "good earth" is the title of a famous book, but nothing else seemed to feel right according to what I intended, so I kept it - maybe it was my subconscious at work or something, which if so really amazes me. 

I actually like this piece even better after reading your comments, so thanks for that!

---todd


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## Firemajic (Jun 10, 2011)

OH you are Bad--SO VERY BAD!! sneaky, conniving -lulling me into a false sense of  security - that I am going to read a fluffy little ditty! Well done !!


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## SilverMoon (Jun 10, 2011)

I absolutely loved your startling ending! Even with now knowing the back story. Laurie


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## toddm (Jun 10, 2011)

Firemajic and Silvermoon,

There is actually something very fulfilling about having a kernal of an idea, putting it down on paper and then having it "work" like you intended when read by others - thanks so much for the feedback : )

---todd


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## wood (Jun 10, 2011)

you express the feeling of relief very well in this poem, the world does feel larger when the weight of opression is lifted. well done.

zig


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## Trides (Jun 10, 2011)

toddm said:


> I was really impressed, Trides, with your very astute comments - you picked up on a lot of the subtleties, and you are right on target...
> I actually like this piece even better after reading your comments, so thanks for that!


Thank YOU.


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## toddm (Jun 11, 2011)

wood said:


> you express the feeling of relief very well in this poem, the world does feel larger when the weight of opression is lifted. well done.
> zig



thanks zig -


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## Heavy Thorn (Jun 11, 2011)

Very profound work, toddm.  Your words were flowing and the story (and need I mention the ending?    ) was fascinating.


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## candid petunia (Jun 11, 2011)

Loved it. And as the others said, surprising ending. But one thing bothered me - should it be _are you ever glad, dear lady? _or simply _are you glad, dear lady?
_
Are you glad,
now that he has died?

Or could elaborate a bit on the _ever_ so I can understand better.


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## toddm (Jun 19, 2011)

candid petunia said:


> Loved it. And as the others said, surprising ending. But one thing bothered me - should it be _are you ever glad, dear lady? _or simply _are you glad, dear lady?
> _
> Are you glad,
> now that he has died?
> ...



thanks, candid petunia, glad you liked it - and it is "are you ever glad?", meaning "do you ever feel glad?", instead of: "are you glad?", as in "are you glad he died?" - nuanced to be sure, but "are you ever glad?" is what I was going for: "do feelings of gladness ever leap up, even though you don't want them to?". 
"Are you glad he died?" is a tad too blunt according to my intent here.

thanks also Heavy Thorn - glad you found this fascinating : )

---todd


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## JosephB (Jun 19, 2011)

I second the positive comments -- pretty clever. One thing -- "torrential" is usually associated with rain or water, pouring or falling. I don't think it really works with wind.

Nice job!


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## Trides (Jun 19, 2011)

He's clearly talking about a hurricane


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## Isaiah Lake (Jun 19, 2011)

Wow... The last line was quite startling indeed. I applaud your cleverly disguised slap in the face!


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## JosephB (Jun 19, 2011)

Trides said:


> He's clearly talking about a hurricane



The phrase is "torrential wind" and it just sounded off to me -- given that torrent and torrential almost always refer to rain or water. But how about we let the author decide what he wants to do with my comment?


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## Chesters Daughter (Jun 19, 2011)

I bow to you, kind sir. I absolutely love this, Todd, it's superb. It's what not said that makes this piece, brilliant concept and equally well executed, a fine piece, indeed.

Best,
Lisa


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## toddm (Jun 19, 2011)

JosephB said:


> The phrase is "torrential wind" and it just sounded off to me -- given that torrent and torrential almost always refer to rain or water. But how about we let the author decide what he wants to do with my comment?



I give you that it is an unusual pairing, which I tend to like - the common phrase is "torrential rains", and I could have used the also common phrase "rushing wind" - but "torrential wind" is not unheard of: google/yahoo the phrase "torrential wind" and you will see it having been used before in news reports of hurricane force winds - powerfully rushing winds is what I was going for -

also, there are several definitions of "torrential", I like the 3rd here:
torrential - definition of torrential by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

thanks for the comments though, makes me think things through
---todd


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## toddm (Jun 19, 2011)

ChestersDaughter said:


> I bow to you, kind sir. I absolutely love this, Todd, it's superb. It's what not said that makes this piece, brilliant concept and equally well executed, a fine piece, indeed.



Lisa, you are too kind - coming from you these are treasured words - I'm glad this piece resonated so well
---todd


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## Gumby (Jun 20, 2011)

I can only agree with all the praise this one has received, toddm. Wonderful work and that twist at the end really made you re-think the whole thing.


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## vrabbit (Jun 20, 2011)

Like everyone else, I loved the last line, really makes you read over the poem once more with context. 

I liked the flow, the way the lines run into eachother, made it easy for me to read.


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## toddm (Jun 22, 2011)

vrabbit said:


> Like everyone else, I loved the last line, really makes you read over the poem once more with context.
> 
> I liked the flow, the way the lines run into eachother, made it easy for me to read.



As you can probably tell from a couple of my pieces, I like a bit of a twist - glad it was effective here - thanks!
---todd


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