Not Found Poem

This found poem was inspired by the FB post of a friend. Most of the words are his and used with his permission. This is his original post:

I have not spent a lot of time traveling the West, but I’ve spent some. I’ve spent time in quiet, empty places, some of which I’ve loved and some of which I’ve regretted. I don’t think about any of those experiences often, but I am tonight. I’m watching Nomadland and it’s beautiful and deliberate and plodding and inviting and alienating. It’s got me feeling a sort of aching nostalgia for a life and places that aren’t really mine and that I really don’t want to be mine. Things I’ve seen and done but things that aren’t really who I think of as me. If that’s not the mark of a successful movie, I don’t know what could possibly be.

- Ryan Skinnell in a FB post from Monday, March 1, 2021

I have not spent a lot

time traveling

The West, in my memory,

a flat place of peaks & canyons,

a topography of scaled places, where

I’ve spent some,

I spend some,

I will spend some

time in quiet,

empty places,

some of which

I’ve loved and regretted.

I don’t think about

those experiences

often, but I am tonight—

beautiful, deliberate, plodding,

inviting, alienating—

aching nostalgia,

that empty hermit crab shell,

for a life of places

that aren’t really mine

and that I don’t want:

places as things, as me

and not as me.