Couch 198: All the Countries Couch

"We'll always have Paris"

Even i like it, and i am not a big fan of Tom Hanks. I always liked the other guy on Bosom Buddies better!

I flew through Milan in 2005 when I went to visit my brother in Naples. It was amazing to me that people didn't line up nicely when it was time to board the next plane; they all bunched up together each person trying to get ahead of somebody else. It was quite a culture shock. That was my first time out of the US except for going to Canada when I was a kid.

Speaking of my brother, my son's flying out tonight to go visit him in Germany. I hate that I'm not taking him to the airport... but I need to continue to let him grow, and find his own way in the world and stuff, so I'm being gracious about his girlfriend taking him since that's what they both want. He just left here, we had lunch together and visited a little. It was nice.

Lack of culture! Just reading this gave me flashbacks to my childhood! Being squished between mounds of scratchy lace covered bellies and poked by sharp metal corners of tightly gripped pocket books - you could lose an eye!

I am having a good time playing with different strains of cbd bud and vaporizers.

I almost forgot to say how when we landed there, and it was time to get off the plane, some dude behind me in the aisle apparently needed to go ahead of me so he pushed me back down into my seat and barrelled past! I should have stuck out my foot to trip him. I know the saying "when in rome" and stuff but dang, I don't know how to act like that. I LIKE nice lines and waiting your turn.

Omg! A boss once asked me if i never learned how to take turns! Frayed knot!!

I scrapped my prompt 1 poem and completely re-wrote it, trying to put more of "me" into it. I think I failed. I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to show my feelings as opposed to talking about and around the emotions.

Trying to do this is like sitting with L and hearing her ask that stupid question "What is that and where are you feeling it?"

now I have to be my own therapist too?!

identifying

feelings

boop boop beep beep boop boop identify - identify - identify

I feel nervous and scared like they want me to be naked in a crowded room of people who are fully clothed

is that

what they mean
show how i

feel?

The deplaning does a lot of showing, not telling. I remember this stuff from my playwright days. What you wrote about getting shoved back down in your seat was kinda shocking.

but that's not showing feeeeeeeelings.
that's just describing what somebody else did?

Well you cant just say, he didnt like the hand he was dealt,

You gotta say, he slammed his cards on the table.

That way you show his anger?

Can you write a poem about your feeling of failure around trying to write a poem? It seems very here-and-now for you and it might be easier to put more of yourself into it.

Write about the woman you were in love with/meeting/being with/ parting

That's a good idea! Thank you.

"show your feelings,
don't just talk about having them.
We want to see you.
Don't hide."

But if I come out from behind
this wall of fear that clothes me
I'll be naked in the middle of the room
with a light shining on me
my heart pounding wildly;
the others dressed in judge's robes
quietly safe in the shadows.

how's that? *edited to replace "king's" with "judges" thanks NP!

The can of chestnut puree she brought back as a present to you from Paris in 1994. You remember opening the gift wrapped can and then staring at it perplexed. Her excited explanation about how she was going to make you chestnut crepes like she had on her trip and wanted you to taste and know of her in that sharing. It held more allure in the promise of remembered experience than in the actually doing. The idea was resurrected every few years. That one can kept for 23 years.

You know... that's a really good idea too thank you. Those feelings were so much bigger than the ones that were churned up in the coffee shop and so should be a lot easier to show. Yet they're far enough in the past that I won't be bawling my eyes out and all that lovely stuff.

I like it. Maybe they should be judges robes? Or maybe I'm projecting.

Yes!!! So edited.

It was spring and you can recall the light as she leaned against her car while you went on about something. Insulted Robert Frost poetry and she protested. It can smack you out of the blue and take away your breath, the way you felt that night and her hair and her perfume. Why can't you remember what she wore?
The following long walks, the talks, the feeling of her hand on you. Remembering the sunlight in her bedroom as you lay there in the morning. Watching her sleep, touching her hips, her back, her breasts. Feeling her chin on your head when she stood behind you and pulled you to her, both facing out. The way you fit together. Falling asleep on her shoulder. But not the first kiss or even the first night together although you are convinced it was a night. You are fairly conventional like that.

does this "show" how i feel instead of just talking abstractly about the emotion? (a snippet from current poem)


"the learned belief that bad experiences are to be avoided
at all cost
because to have them would mean
that I am not good enough."

wow, sd. just, wow.


must.not.hug.sd.

This feels intellectual to me.

damn.

but thanks.

why is this so hard?!

i'll keep working at it!

ok going with sd's suggestion now and breaking away from the assignment:

"The scent of rain on pine trees calls me back
to the summer of ‘86
I can almost feel again
the gentle yet insistent tug of your fingers
against my shirt
as you pull me closer...
my heart beating madly
my mind not really believing
and then
your kiss
as if it were my first; and
softer than the moan
that escapes my throat"