Martha Collins

Poet, Translator, Editor

Gone So Far

By Martha Collins

Gone So Far
$5
  • Publisher: Barnwood Press
  • Available in: Paperback
  • ISBN: 0-935306-49-8
  • Published: April 1, 2005
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Gone So Far is a chapbook of poems that focuses on the poet’s relationship with her mother, now aging and afflicted with dementia. In the mother’s fragmented and confused utterances, which are often quoted, Martha Collins has found both eloquence and wisdom.

The poems in Gone So Far have not appeared in a full-length collection.

 

Prayer

When I am old, help me to know I am old
And cannot help it. Help me to know myself
When I cannot help myself. When I do not know
Myself, let me forget what cannot be helped.

 

Gone So Far

I'm lost and I can't be found

                                        pastures valley waters cup

They put me out and I can't go back

                                        as through a glass those little girls

My clothes remind me of who I was

                                        Of course I'm your mama. We're just that close

through all the days of once was then

                                        All those years, ever since, you know, then

I try to be the same but I can't

                                         I have been young and only now

I've gone so far and this is the end

                                         so many voices so much light

My body aches it aches with sorrow

                                         and shall not anymore
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