What I’ll Miss When I’m Blind

Posted on 2022-04-28 by Bartholomew Barker

For today’s prompt, write a sight poem.

What I’ll Miss When I’m Blind

Sure I’ll miss the night sky
and that scrunched-up face
you make between the vodka
and Mountain Dew teaser

But I’ll still be able to hear you sing
the taste of blueberries in summer
and feel the subtle warmth of moonlight
illuminating my skin

What I’ll really miss will be reading
to see a well laid out poem on the page
to follow the verses like a map
of a new continent that I just discovered

I hope you’ll still take me to used book stores
if only for the musty smell of silent words

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About Bartholomew Barker

Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
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18 Responses to What I’ll Miss When I’m Blind

  1. Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris's avatar (Gypsie) Ami Offenbacher-Ferris says:
    2022-04-28 at 20:50

    Somehow this is lovely. 😊

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  2. pensivepoetblog's avatar pensivepoetblog says:
    2022-04-28 at 21:05

    Oh my, you’re killing it Bart.

    Love the description of how poems are read and the love for the bookstores and the smell. I resonate. But I also am going to try looking at poems that way. Inspiring.

    Also love that narrator can feel moonlight.

    Liked by 3 people

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  3. pensivepoetblog's avatar pensivepoetblog says:
    2022-04-28 at 21:40

    Does it mean I’d have to go outside?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. pensivepoetblog's avatar pensivepoetblog says:
    2022-04-28 at 21:51

    We don’t like windows here in AZ. They let in the heat. But I could step out on my patio. I just don’t do it much now that I don’t smoke cigarettes. I avoid it kinda.

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. yourplateormine967244485's avatar yourplateormine967244485 says:
    2022-04-28 at 22:25

    So much to appreciate about your poem, but the last line, I felt and see that!! Such purity! 💝😌

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. yourplateormine967244485's avatar yourplateormine967244485 says:
    2022-04-28 at 22:28

    I may ask for your permission to use “musty smell of silent words” in a poem or write a poem for the line?! 🙏🏽

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  7. JeanMarie's avatar JeanMarie says:
    2022-04-29 at 01:41

    So many great lines here. “sing the taste of blueberries in summer” and “the musty smell of silent words” – great job.

    Liked by 1 person

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  8. berniebell1955's avatar berniebell1955 says:
    2022-04-29 at 12:14

    I’m a talker. I talk a lot. But, if I had to lose one of my ways of making contact with the world, I’d go for talking. Talking is just me, putting out me, to the world – and I could always write things down.

    Bernie Bell’s John Rae Challenge…Completed!!!!

    The other ways of connecting with the world are all to do with receiving – taking things in – making sense/something of them.

    For me, I think the worst of the senses to lose would be my sight – so much to lose.

    Liked by 1 person

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