“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” - Kenji Miyazawa
We often hear that one does not appreciate what one has until one loses it. It is certainly true and perhaps it does not apply anywhere more aptly than in the realm of relationships. Taking people for granted is something that is too commonplace. Assuming that the person who loves us will always be there and take anything we dish out has been the undoing of many a relationship. Waking up one morning and finding that special person gone brings home the awful meaning of that old saw: You don’t appreciate what you have until you lose it…
Celebration
I lit the chandelier in the drawing room
And turned the music on, loud.
I feign a cool indifference
As I roam in empty rooms,
Singing sotto voce now and then,
So that I hear a voice in the desert.
I look at an old photograph of yours
And drink drop by drop your wine –
How bitter-sweet it tastes.
My voice breaks and is shattered
By a sob, unexpected, loud.
Each teardrop that falls, is pleading
“Come back, don’t torture me any longer…”
The light burns bright in shining crystal
While within me darkness stifles me.
The music plays, loud, and the house is filled
But my soul won’t hear it, it cannot.
I think of you, I see you, I hear you
But my empty hand won’t be fooled
And clutches emptiness as my fingers grip
A handful of nothing, nowhere, never.
Jacqui BB hosts Poetry Wednesday
this is a really beautiful poem, nick. maybe one of your best?
ReplyDelete(were you commenting on the attitude of yahoo to the 360ers?).
it is a horrible feeling to be taken for granted and also horrible when a friend suddenyl disappears. this poem is a moving remonder that we all need to make a concious effort to invest in our relationships.
One of the joys of multi-blogging is that I have found friends I have thought I lost and made new friends in "alien neighborhoods". It is not unlike when I rode my bike a block further afield than usual when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteI think I am vary familiar with loss because as a kid I grew up moving from base to base with my father and then I am faced with a fresher loss and find it hurts as much even if as an older adult I have learned to mask those feelings.
You poem says it wonderfully. And putting it into words on a page is so often a way out of that hole inside ourselves.
Personally I am very happy to find you here in blogger (and as you state many other old neighborhood friends). And I am happy that Google seems to be adding more ways for us all to stay in touch here with following and friends, and dashboard.
Now that I have tracked down my own account on here I may comment.
ReplyDeleteAs usual you have written such beautiful sentiments. Nothing changes.