I Am Alive – I Guess
I Am Alive – I Guess - meaning Summary
Fragile, Tentative Selfhood
The poem offers a tentative affirmation of being alive through small, sensory details and social circumstances. The speaker notes bodily sensations and ordinary disruptions that prove presence, while contrasting living with the stillness of a parlor and the finality of death. Refusing a fixed, owned domestic identity also registers life: lacking a house or a labeled girlhood doorway keeps the self movable and engaged rather than sealed off as dead or owned.
Read Complete AnalysesI am alive I guess The Branches on my Hand Are full of Morning Glory And at my finger’s end The Carmine tingles warm And if I hold a Glass Across my Mouth it blurs it Physician’s proof of Breath I am alive because I am not in a Room The Parlor Commonly it is So Visitors may come And lean and view it sidewise And add ‘How cold it grew’ And ‘Was it conscious when it stepped In Immortality? ‘ I am alive because I do not own a House Entitled to myself precise And fitting no one else And marked my Girlhood’s name So Visitors may know Which Door is mine and not
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