When you have written a hundred poems of the remembrance of love,
how do you speak of the forgetting?
Do you measure every margin of a cherished page of poems?
Or ask the mute swan in winter for an annotation of spring?
I loved you in the bright of morning never afraid of the
dark of night.
I swam a lovely ocean toward you,
and I could barely swim!
But somewhere between follies splash,
and dreadful storms,
I was stricken with the ailment of unknowing.
My heart lost the strength to hold
what it once could not let go.
Now I swim rough seas in the twilight
unaware of the sting
that once led me to you.
Linking with Shay's Word Garden Word List #15 (Millay)
Come join us!
What are you doing in the water, girl?!? I made sandwiches, here's a towel, dry off! Turn my back for 5 seconds and you're out there in the briney. :-p
ReplyDeleteLOL I never leave when there is sandwiches!! 🤩
DeleteThis is stunning. My favorites:
ReplyDelete“ask the mute swan in winter for an annotation of spring”
the last six lines
Excellent work.
Thank you so much!! *
DeleteThe sadness and the beauty of remembered love are all in here, Carrie, and the struggles it brings to the heart, which is a lonely swimmer. Definitely something Millay would be familiar with.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much my friend! I suppose love has left it's mark on us all.
DeleteThe forgetting ~~ impossible. A part of what makes us “us” forever. Time makes it bearable if we are fortunate ~~~
ReplyDeleteSo true my friend, Helen.
DeleteThis poem captures the heart's experience so well. I, too, love the mute swan line especially. Really fine writing, my friend.
ReplyDeleteAwww thank you Sherry! I find it hard not to be continually writing about some faze of love and the loss of it
DeleteStunning poem, Carrie, I love the narrative of how this woman strengthens throughout the poem so much so she no longer feels the sting. I love these lines:
ReplyDelete"When you have written a hundred poems of the remembrance of love,
how do you speak of the forgetting?"
"Now I swim rough seas in the twilight
unaware of the sting
that once led me to you."
Beautiful <3