I Do Not Love You by Polly Hall

Our third category for winners is Poetry and in 2014 it was won by Polly Hall with her entry titled ‘I do not love you’.

I do not love you as a practised speech or polished aria,

I do not love you as the crescendo of a soulful descant.

I love you as silence loves the space

between an exhalation and an inhalation –

as the eyelids of the opera singer gently close.

I love you as the printed quavers and minims

on a stave wait to be given life

by an instrument or a voice.

Appassionato, con bravura; they don’t matter.

I love you as the strings wait for a bow.

I love you as the pages of a book whisper apart

to awaken a much read passage.

I love you in the time it takes

my breath to dry this green ink;

I love you in the echo of your footsteps.

I love you in the repetition of our names, together –

the rolling of our consonants and vowels.

I love you because you really hear my music

and don’t expect me to play it just for you.

You hear my music so I’ll play it just for you.

———-

Polly Hall. My background in holistic therapy and healing has given me a strong foundation in understanding the interconnectedness of life. I published my first non-fiction book, The Art of Foot Reading, in 2009. I’m rarely shocked by anything as I have such a vivid imagination. One of my favourite authors is Stephen King, he is a pure genius. That’s not to say I try to write like him but I think you can learn a lot from successful writers.

I’m fascinated by people’s motivations and backgrounds. I enjoy getting deep into the meaning of things and the minutiae. I am hoping that one day someone invents a machine that can record your dreams in multi-colour so you can play them back as a movie. I am currently studying an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and loving every minute of it. My main aim as a writer is to make the reader feel something whether that be a sense of dread or joy.

My blog – skywomb.blogspot.co.uk – was written as a creative response to my experience of hysterectomy. Twitter: @pollyfeet.

(Photo courtesy: Wikipedia Didgeridoo_street_player.jpg: Noel Feans