Margie on Naomi Replansky

When we met for coffee on this rainy day, I asked Margie to read me aloud this poem by Naomi Replansky, now 104 years old and still writing, born in the Bronx, not far from where Margie was born. 

I Met My Solitude

by Naomi Replansky

I met my Solitude. We two stood glaring.
I had to tremble, meeting her face to face.
Then she saying, and I with bent head hearing:
“You sent me forth to exile and disgrace,

“Most faithful of your friends, then most forsaken,
Forgotten in breast, in bath, in books, in bed.
To someone else you gave the gifts I gave you,
And you embraced another in my stead.

“Though we meet now, it is not of your choosing.
I am not fooled. And I do not forgive.
I am less kind, but did you treat me kindly?
In armored peace from now on let us live.”

So did my poor hurt Solitude accuse me.
Little was left of good between us two.
And I drew back: “How can we stay together,
You jealous of me, and I laid waste by you?

“By you, who used to be my good provider,
My secret nourisher, and mine alone.
The strength you taught me I must use against you,
And now with all my strength I wish you gone.”

Then she, my enemy, and still my angel,
Said in that harsh voice that once was sweet:
“I will come back, and every time less handsome,
And I will look like Death when last we meet.”

Margie likes the poem, likes what she calls its “toughness.” I asked her what her relationship with Solitude is like. She says for her, Solitude is a long-time spouse she has grown tired of. “The part I feel most is the line, ‘And now with all my strength I wish you gone.’ That's me," she laughed, “for me, Solitude is always there. I want to tell it to go out, take a break, find some other person to hang out with. But no. It’s true to me, steadfast, like a needy dog. I sometimes feel trapped by it. It sits over there in the corner, as tired of me as I am of it.”