“It Is Not True” first appeared in Anon
It is not true,
that you must reap as you sow.
You may wake in a cold sweat
with a changed mind,
scream into your garden,
claw at the earth
with your bare hands
and scrabble up those seeds.
You have made your bed
but you do not have to lie in it.
No one has to lie in it.
Go back into the house with an axe
and smash the bed to pieces.
Drag it out into your
freshly clawed-at garden.
Gregory Heath is widely published as a poet and short story writer. His literary novel The Entire Animal, published by The Waywiser Press, is available through all the usual channels and his collection of poetry The Boy And His Animals is available via his website at www.gregoryheath.co.uk.
I honestly love this poem. It’s one I keep returning to lately, when I’m stuck with my own writing. I love the message of it: Simple yet effective, especially the idea of the persona scrabbling ‘up those seeds’. The imagery of agriculture regarding mistakes and learning from them is a popular and well known idea; however Gregory Heath takes it and flips it on its head.
Thank you, Bethany!
Greg.