You loved that damned book more than me

I defy you to look me in the eyes

and tell me another story

without blushing your lie on your indoor-pallid cheeks.

I suffered for you

and you let me.

And yet – I let you.

Let you wallow in Stalin’s favour,

allowed you to hide behind his protection of you,

you, the cloud-dweller.

Gulags, interrogations,

I suffered for your art,

you great, lumbering, weak-willed genius you.

Some comfort, in my last, disappeared days

that I,

yes I,

gave you all that you needed to write

the greatest novel of the 20th century.

I. Am. Lara.

---

 

Oh I am so very delighted that our guest-host Kim (welcome, welcome and thank you!) presented us with this wonderful prompt for tonight’s dVerse Poetics. She has invited us to write a poem about a person (real or imagined) from the viewpoint of their husband, wife or partner.

Having just listened to a fascinating interview with Anna Pasternak, who has written a book ‘Lara: The Untold Love Story’ about the inspiration for Lara in her great-uncle’s classic novel, Dr Zhivago, this is perfect timing for this prompt.

Boris Pasternak benefited from a bizarre protective order from Stalin (who described Pasternak as ‘the cloud-dweller’) and whilst the authorities couldn’t get at him for his anti-communist novel writing, they could get at his lover, Olga Ivinskaya. Boy, did she suffer for him, and goodness, did he let her! His great-niece said, quite frankly, that she believed that he loved the book more than his lover, but Olga accepted that because she in turn, believed in him so much.

Anyway, here’s my interpretation of that tragic situation – I suspect I’ll be buying the book when it comes out…

Please do head on over to dVerse for more writing and enjoy!