23 Comments
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Bill Dempsey's avatar

Remarkable work. Really gorgeous language throughout and the labor involved in it's creation is evident (not in that it is a difficult read, but rather it was so well crafted and cared for).

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Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

This is so massive! Just one sonnet is hard to get right, to link 8 and tell a whole story is wonderful. I think the form and style you've used suits the dark theme perfectly!

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Hazel's avatar

Reading your work is always so awe-spiring. The way you form your prose, letting it flow, and tell your tale, only (like you say) amplified by the confines of the poems structure. Like always: it's amazing, and I just can't get enough of your writing.

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G. K. Allum's avatar

Wow! This is so rewarding to hear. Thank you

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Louise Morris's avatar

Incredible. I can’t find any other words just now. I’m in awe.

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G. K. Allum's avatar

I’m so glad you enjoyed this especially as it’s a new form, grateful!

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Hazel's avatar

I felt the same way reading through this. It's incredible for sure.

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Shawn Cremer's avatar

“I mailed my fingertips, all raw and true” is spectacular

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G. K. Allum's avatar

I’m glad you liked that part.

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Diana  Goniou's avatar

So powerful, meaningful and rich. One of those to read again and again!

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samuel forbes's avatar

A tremendous accomplishment. The language and style is reminiscent of Dante, which is oh-so-appropriate for an Italian sonnet :) this passage —

These atoms, neurons, electrons dissolve;

“Fade into the ether, into the sky.

Vibrating in binary forms of light,

A celestial mausoleum resolve.”

Wonderful writing! Much of the language felt archaic throughout; I found it fascinating how you drew from modern biological concepts as the “self” was dissolving into the universe.

Bravo!

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G. K. Allum's avatar

Compared to Dante, what an honor

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Artemisia Writes's avatar

I actually felt the same! Amazing

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Kyra Finley's avatar

Gorgeous ✨️🐍 I love how you described your process and yes, love and poetry (I feel any kind of creativity) requires surrender and sacrifice. We'll said!

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Gillian Fletcher's avatar

“My poems are vomit songs.” You are a magician with words.

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G. K. Allum's avatar

If my poems are vomit songs, I wonder what my vomit is. Maybe that's a poem or an essay for another time!

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Justine Jakobs's avatar

Love how you work with the format and talk about it. It’s so interesting to me to see the process behind making the art! Very beautiful piece

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G. K. Allum's avatar

Thank you for the kind words!

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Scarlet Temple's avatar

Reading your poem hit me like a physical force. You know how the French have this beautiful phrase - la petite mort - for that moment of complete surrender? That's how your words felt. Like being undone and remade in the same breath.

When you wrote about losing them, I felt that exquisite edge where loss and pleasure blur together. It's the same edge lovers find - that moment when we're stripped down to our raw essence, when we let ourselves fall apart just to discover what remains. Your poem captures that perfect paradox, how losing someone can break us open to ourselves.

The way you described your grief - it isn't just sadness, is it? It's transformation wearing loss's face. Like waves reshaping a shoreline, each retreat leaving us changed, each advance bringing something new to our shores. We're never quite the same after loving deeply, after losing deeply. But that's the terrible beauty of it - how love's little deaths teach us to be reborn.

Your words reminded me that every ending holds a beginning in its hands. Even now, while you're gasping from the loss, you're also drawing your first breaths of becoming someone new. Someone who knows how to survive this. Someone who understands that surrender isn't weakness - it's the door we walk through to find ourselves again.

Thank you for reminding me of the beauty found in loss.

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G. K. Allum's avatar

Wow. Thank you so much for taking the time a) to read the sonnet and b) to craft such a thoughtful response. You hit the nail on the head with grief, through these experiences we grow. You might like my poem 'A Serenade to The Ghost' too.

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Scarlet Temple's avatar

Thank you for sharing your poetry. I'm deeply moved with your work, and look forward to reading the next, the title alone has captured my imagination. I look forward to savoring your words and the journey they'll take me on.

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Katie McGerther's avatar

Bravo! Beautifully executed and humbling to witness.🙏🏻✨💕

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