Coat: A Poem for Friday

Posted by DJL on Mar 16, 2012 in Poetry | 1 comment

There is something melancholy, poignant, and utter recognizable in Vicki Feaver’s poem “Coat.” She names an experience that we have all had, or at least can imagine: giving up on someone we once loved from the desire to be free, only to discover that freedom can be pretty lonely. Yes, commitment can at times feel like restraint and forbearance like limitation, and so we all too eagerly trade the challenges inherent in relationship for the cold comfort of our independence. What I love about this poem is how she captures all this and more with such an economy of words that her poem creates in us a sensation and experience rather than mere contemplation.

Coat

Sometimes I have wanted
to throw you off
like a heavy coat.

Sometimes I have said
you would not let me
breathe or move.

But now that I am free
to choose light clothes
or none at all

I feel the cold
and all the time I think
how warm it used to be.

Vicki Feaver, from Close Relatives (1981).