8/20/15
Six months ago I wrote this. It is not my best work. It may become better over time. Nothing I write is set in stone until I am set into the ground. And, even then, stone wears, becomes sand, washes to the sea.
I needed help finding a title. After six months, I thought, maybe, “After Four Years.” It had been nearly that since she fell. Since the days became numbered. Until I could count them on one hand. Until they were gone. But this will be true no matter how many years pass, and I know, even when I die, even that will be different. And so, that one day, April 1st, 2011, will always be that day. The day. The one day.
And, so, below, a mediocre poem that, against my normal practice, I wish to leave here anyway. “One Day.”
2/1/2015
Really. I need your help. I can’t title this poem. It caught me in the car, I had to pull over. I had to write.
Maybe it will be all I write about for the rest of my life. Maybe writing about it will let me write about other things. I don’t know. I think about it more than I should. More than is good for me.
Can you title this? Can you leave a title in the comments?
If you nail it, I’ll send you a book.
One day
Cancer came into my home.
It went though my filing cabinets,
It took my
Who, what, where, why.
It took my how and stole them,
Changed them,
Replaced them with
Ones I didn’t recognize.
It came into my life,
Removed everything familiar,
Replaced them with things
I didn’t know how to operate,
Changed routes.
This street is not the same street,
This house is not the same house.
It looks the same to everyone else.
They are wrong.
Personality changes over time,
Small changes.
Slow changes.
Until cancer decides
You are someone else,
Your life becomes another life.
And, always, you know
That day can come again.
Adam Byrn Tritt 
deloney
February 1, 2015 at 2:51 PM
The Visitor Who Wouldn’t Leave
Java John
February 1, 2015 at 2:59 PM
f*ck cancer
Aculady
February 1, 2015 at 3:04 PM
Malignant Mutations
Andy McIlwraith
February 1, 2015 at 4:01 PM
Cancer Has the Title
BGYT
February 1, 2015 at 6:50 PM
Old Loves,
New director,
No reunion.
Kolby Wolf
August 20, 2015 at 2:31 PM
This is a difficult one because the poem is addressing multiple ideas. It is portraying a new reality; in which, all of the familiar things begin to shift toward the unfamiliar while doing it slow enough that every step becomes the new “normal.” While it is an external shift, it does cue an internal shift as well. At once, you are both the actor and the one being acted upon. It is the separation of these ideas that makes applying a single title difficult. Below is my best attempt made during the pittance of time they assign me, planning period. I hope it helps spark a new title for you. Titles are immensely personal; in that, they help to define the work. Good luck in your search.
A Familiar Stranger
Kolby Wolf
August 20, 2015 at 2:31 PM
This is a difficult one because the poem is addressing multiple ideas. It is portraying a new reality; in which, all of the familiar things begin to shift toward the unfamiliar while doing it slow enough that every step becomes the new “normal.” While it is an external shift, it does cue an internal shift as well. At once, you are both the actor and the one being acted upon. It is the separation of these ideas that makes applying a single title difficult. Below is my best attempt made during the pittance of time they assign me, planning period. I hope it helps spark a new title for you. Titles are immensely personal; in that, they help to define the work. Good luck in your search.
A Familiar Stranger