James G Piatt’s most recent poem here was My Identity, which was published as part of Contributor Series 5: Dramatis Personae. Never afraid to plumb the sadder depths of love and life, James takes us to those dark corners again today. He writes of the regrets that emerge at a final good-bye, and the wishes one might experience to have expressed some thoughts and feelings a little earlier and a little more poetically. What better motivation is there to get up and write than this?
The Poet’s Pen
By James G Piatt
When you have forever gone away
I will never find an inner release
The sunny days will disappear
And dark clouds will bring no peace
The hours will crawl slowly by
And darkness will start to emerge
The last hint of the dusty pink sun
Will quietly into the abyss converge
Soft memories will depart from my mind
And I’ll hear only the dim echo of birds
My eyes will fill with images of despair
And my ears won’t hear your final words
Oh, if only I could take more time
To hold you and kiss away your cares
If only I had understood the words
Too delicate to hear the prayers
If I had known that precious moments
Would never return to be cherished again
And that the years would so quickly fade away
I would have listened more to the poet’s pen
James, thanks. While I don’t care for the syntactical inversion in line 8, I understand why you did it. And poets sometimes have tough choices. What inspires me is the final quatrain. The passage of time is inevitable; that poetry can somehow ameliorate the losses Time brings is hopeful and challenging. It reminds a bit of a poem by South African writer, Dan Wylie, called “The Break-In.” You can read it at: http://people.bridgewater.edu/~sgallowa/235/wylie-break.htm, where I use it sometime for a class I teach. Thanks again.