It was classier back then in the 80s (heartbreak chandeliers, blood fountains), back before the department stores went online. I can only imagine what her dream would be like in the era of Cyber Monday...
That is funny. When I look back, I remember not liking the 1980’s - partly because I was a kid and partly because I dreamed of the 1960s and partly because of the greedy culture all around me in NYC. But now, when I look at it I realize how manual it still was and how much presence I had as we all oversaw the shift to being here - online.
I hear you. I remember that time too. A still manual era... that's a good way to put it. Shopping aside, this poem is I think even more prescient for a social media era, where the broken hearts aren't hanging from chandeliers but from lugubrious tweets and facebook posts and tiktok confessionals.
Such a provoking and beautiful poem! For some reason it made me imagine that one should enter such a shop and then he or she would have a good reason to visit another where one can buy healing recipes and remedies for aching hearts: drugs of all sorts, alcohol, meditating, solitude, dismissing love (for we need to learn how to love ourselves first, before being able to share love)… No one would judge you for your oddities or excesses when you have a wound that sore to handle …
Julia wrote more than 70 volumes of poetry in her lifetime--and this poem is my favorite. It's visual, visceral, and visionary.
who'll take you seriously at a party without a broken heart?
So beautiful
It was classier back then in the 80s (heartbreak chandeliers, blood fountains), back before the department stores went online. I can only imagine what her dream would be like in the era of Cyber Monday...
That is funny. When I look back, I remember not liking the 1980’s - partly because I was a kid and partly because I dreamed of the 1960s and partly because of the greedy culture all around me in NYC. But now, when I look at it I realize how manual it still was and how much presence I had as we all oversaw the shift to being here - online.
I hear you. I remember that time too. A still manual era... that's a good way to put it. Shopping aside, this poem is I think even more prescient for a social media era, where the broken hearts aren't hanging from chandeliers but from lugubrious tweets and facebook posts and tiktok confessionals.
Lugubrious is a great word.
Right. Red fountains and red pills
Such a provoking and beautiful poem! For some reason it made me imagine that one should enter such a shop and then he or she would have a good reason to visit another where one can buy healing recipes and remedies for aching hearts: drugs of all sorts, alcohol, meditating, solitude, dismissing love (for we need to learn how to love ourselves first, before being able to share love)… No one would judge you for your oddities or excesses when you have a wound that sore to handle …
This line landed with a thoughtful elegance, “I dreamed nobody could live without one.”
Yes, a truely beautiful piece, but I did find it hard to read as images of todays realities were knocking on my consciensness...
This one is on page 270 of Julia's Selected Works with tons of other great poems. See www.Zeitgeist-Press.com.
Fabulous post thank you!... Powerful poem I will use in one of my upcoming...Fearless Writing workshops!!
Julia Vinograd! A small poetry press legend!
incredible poem
Just wow. This one got me!
Brilliant poem. Thank you.
Vivid and powerful
I sometimes have vivid dreams and also revisits v1, v2, v3 etc
For the record, it isn't about shopping, it's about wounds.
Broken hearts dangled from chandeliers,
who'll take you seriously at a party without a broken heart?
Brilliant.
This touched something deep inside. What a profound poem. Thank you for sharing.