All of Me – A Poem by Shannon O’Connor

I’m writing a poem. It’s called “An Ode to His Hands.” I started “writing” it via voice notes, last night. But I’m visiting my mom and after being busy all day, my brain is fried. My night has consisted of wine, PBS shows, and lounging. While scrolling on Pinterest, I ran across the poem above. I love it. So evocative.

I have been thinking a lot about poetry lately. Mostly because I ran across old writing from my childhood and teen years as I was unpacking my apartment. But I’ve also had poetry on my mind because I just finished a novel for my work book club called “The Wedding People.” The protagonist is an English Professor. The novel makes reference to some of my favorite novels as well as one of my favorite English poets – John Donne. Her students had similar reactions to Donne as my fellow English majors at college. I don’t care – I love him anyway. Here’s one of my favorites.

What I loved about Donne (and St. Augustine’s writings too), was that both men wrote of the push and pull between the holy and the flesh. Donne’s “Holy Sonnet 14: Batter my heart, three-person’d God” is another favorite. I have no idea what the point of this post is, except to say that I have reached a point where I no longer want to write anything but truth – wherever it takes me.

And so, I count down the minutes until I can return to write my novel about one woman’s promised land, and can finish an ode to his hands.