Poem: "Zielschmerz"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem came out of the January 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It fills the "Good-Bye to All That" square in my 1-1-25 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. It has been sponsored by janetmiles. This poem belongs to A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows series.


"Zielschmerz"
the dread of finally pursuing a lifelong dream,
which requires you to put your true abilities
out there to be tested on the open savanna,
no longer protected inside the terrarium of
hopes and delusions that you started up in
kindergarten and kept sealed as long as you could

If you want your dream
to have a chance of surviving,
then you need to protect and
nurture it in the beginning.

You have to shield it from
the prying eyes of critics that
it is not yet ready to withstand.

You have to give it a place
where it can grow in safety.

If you want your dream
to become something more
than just a dream, though,
to manifest itself into
the waking world, then
there's another step.

You have to let it out and
say goodbye to all that.

A dream becoming real
needs the air and space
to spread itself wide and
grow into its true form.

If you were smart --
if you knew something
about seed-starting
and its failure modes --

then you didn't sprout
your dream in a terrarium.

You raised it in a greenhouse
with a deep pot for strong roots
and a fan for strong stems.

You know how to harden it off
with gradual exposure to
the open air over time.

So when you finally
plant it in the wild earth,

it will grow like zucchini
unleashed upon the world.

* * *

Notes:

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, p. 33. Simon & Schuster, 2021.

This comes after "Funkenzwangsvorstellung."