This piece is simple and poignant. I love those simpler pieces, that don't find the need to buckle on too many metaphors and imagery and messages.
And yet, you know the depth is there, rather than those pieces that say nothing of the author, and their life.
This piece? The very first thing that stood out to me after I figured out what it meant (at least to me), was wondering how many people saw the invisible line(s) at the end of the poem, the one(s) that read:
I'm not ready to leave yet/I'm not ready to go back into the forest yet.
The forest is dark, and the narrator keeps chasing someone who is there, yet who she fears isn't. And why would she wish to leave the beautiful and entrancing flowers?
And then you realize the colours of the flowers in the meadow was actually chosen by the poet for a reason. It's the colour of a bruise.
And then you cast your eyes to the beginning of the poem, where finding the meadow was losing her way.
Oh, sure, you can choose to read it as if sometimes in our scary and hard lives, we might "lose our way," only to find solace and peace, unexpectedly. In the deepest dark forest, a shining gem, right?
Well, not in this one. This is a quest, in the forest. And the expanse of flowers is a siren call that detracts. Can't even hear, or follow, the voice you are seeking, chasing.
And what is it about? It's about being left behind. It's about being led, by someone, chasing someone who is always a step ahead of you, just out of sight. A bitter-sweet image, with both negative and positive connotations, of never catching up, which some could see as never feeling adequate, as never manging to change enough, and yet wanting to change, as it's just the footsteps of the one beyond being seen, showing us the route we must take.
And then, I thought if to write this too, but I'll write some of it.
Actually knowing what this poem is about definitely changed some of my thoughts. About receiving a surprising message related to death.
And then the dark forest, and the one who's just out of touch? That's the feeling when someone moved on, and we weren't ready for it.
And the news coming and hitting us like a punch in the gut, thus the emotional bruise.
Them damn bruises, they can hurt but I've always admired the colours. ;)