POETRY SPOTLIGHT: 'all the offal love' by Ali Whitelock

It's time for our Poem of the Week post! Let's delve into an excerpt taken from the moving poem 'All the Offal Love', from Ali Whitelock's  recently released collection The Lactic Acid in the Calves of Your Despair.

Instead of choosing a full poem today, I wanted to focus on a small collection of words within a larger work, because sometimes it is nice to stop and think and ponder just a little bit closer. Sometimes there is joy to be found in slowing down.
And these words definitely made me stop and slow.
They made me wonder if I 'go to bed eager' or 'wake up glad'.
I think the wonder of poetry is often that it can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Sometimes, it can even mean something very different to a poet than for a reader.
 

From 'all the offal love' by Ali Whitelock

sometimes when i’m driving back from the supermarket
i consider the possibility i may not make it home alive.
when i pull into my driveway & i’m not dead, i unpack
the car, marvel at the canned spaghetti & sliced white bread

i’ll get to enjoy if i make it into the house without breaking
my neck on the stairs & every other day i don’t die, i try
to go to bed eager. wake up glad. i do my best to whip
the egg whites of my love till they stand in peaks
of their own accord. i sift my light like flour.
churn my hate till it turns to butter.

 
These words make me think that joy is often found in small things, and that perhaps by facing the inevitability of an ending, it allows us to breathe again in the meantime. I like the idea that by embracing the darkness in our lives and confronting sometimes brutal truths, we are able to fully appreciate the world around us in all its minute beauty.
To read the poem in full or to discover more of Ali Whitelock's poetry, delve into her newest collection The Lactic Acid in the Calves of Your Despair.  
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