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Poetry of Loss


To play (MIDI), click here The Lamentation of Dierdre

 

Song of Love

                   
It's true that loves entwined may soar
on wings as soft as air,
to heights above those known to one,
to glide aloft
a little while,
to spiral round a dazzled sun.
                   
                   
Song of Pain
                   
How soon the gentle rays of dawn,
as warm as love's embrace,
sear the tearful bounds of sight.
Come quickly Night,
as my dark friend,
and save me from this burning light.
                   
                   
Song of Loss
                   
Winter's come too soon this year,
to pierce the heart made bare
when Fall fulfilled our sacred vow.
Winds now do chill
where soft breath warmed,
chill tears that soon will turn to snow.
                   

                 
Song of Solace
                   
Life is but a loving dream
our souls share for a time
and as each dreamer's called away,
love's not lost
nor shall it dim
though dreams must fade by day.
                   

To play (MIDI), click here Lament

 

 

                   
Song of Comfort
                   
Cool mists rise from gentle pools of time,
yet filled with fire's dreams
that borrow from the setting sun,
of love not lost
and life regained,
to warm my soul when day is done.
                   
   
Reverie
                           
She smiled at me, a loving smile
to greet the day
with all the joy that can ever be.
Sweet sorrow
on the morning
when I dreamed, my first love smiled at me.



                   
Song of Hope
                   
My love lives within my soul,
though loving touch denied.
My love lives as one who's free
of pain and fear.
She rests at peace
and waits with love to welcome me.

 

   

                       
To play (MIDI), click here II Am Asleep

 

 

                         The Scarf

                   'Where did that scarf go?',
                       I thought pensively.
                   'Why can't I find it?
                       and where can it be?'
               
                       Well, vanish it did
                           leaving no trace.
                       Yet my eyes once again
                           search its usual place.
             
                    So many years it warmed
                        and held me tight,
                   The gift of a loving heart,
                       so soft and light.
               
                       Even though lost so long ago,
                           recalling its touch,
                       I still look for that scarf
                           that was loved so much.
             
                    There's bound to be someday,
                       (when, I can't surmise)
                   turning some dark corner,
                       I'll surely realize
               
                       how and why that scarf was lost
                           and where that scarf has lain.
                       It won't take a moment more
                           to find it once again.
                         

 

 

To play (MIDI), click here Parting Of Friends

 

 

 
     Sun Boat

    Afloat on waves of days and months and years,
    I sail the stream of Time to trail the Sun;
    my Master basks in warmth of Horus, quiet One,
    and gazes down on all that Ptah has said.

    He once upon the earth of men did live;
    he loved and laughed, and sometimes bled and cried.
    Beyond such now, he waits to heed the call
    apprising him Great Ptah recasts His Words.

    Now you should know that Time, serene aloft,
    is often storm and flood in Middle Realms
    and they who dwell there may betray their souls
    anachronistically; to seek the prize
    another's future holds, remorse for deeds
    undone or done for reasons good and pure
    that convoluting Time enfolds and cloaks,
    now leaving guilt that Set implants in all.

    My master, such a man was he, you see;
    he scorned to fear Osiris' Judgement Hall
    and laughed before he understood the jest.

    He sought and grasped and clutched the spoils of Life
    as though they would not melt in his warm hands
    and slip through fingers spread to reach yet more,
    dissolving all too quickly then within
    tumultuous, writhing, squirming, fleeing Time.

    The God he worshipped, Thoth it was, obliged
    the mind and left the soul he scorned unfilled.
    A slave to skills and crafts and lore newborn,
    ignoring wisdom gleaned from ages past
    and sentenced by the elder Gods to search
    an everlasting path of thwarted hopes;
    he must behold the truth complete, sublime,
    yet found no vantage point unmoved by Time.

    An empty heart, an empty soul, too blind
    to all his undeserved rewards to find
    redemption in the love of Gods for Man,
    my Pilot now, adrift had he yet been,
    without an anchor in the stream of Time,
    when shorn was he of mate and kindred, Love
    and Laughter,
                         walls that kept the Demons of
    the Night outside the emptiness within.


    He cried, of course, to think on those who fled
    from his embrace to dread Anubis' arms;
    he called a thousand times a thousand deeds
    to issue from the mouth of He Who Speaks
    Reality, now mute as well as deaf
    to all my master's pleading, to restore
    if not the souls of those adored to him
    then perfect recollect sustaining Love.
    Great Ptah denied him _mercy from the God_
    for minds that live the past are cast adrift
    upon the course of Time's effluvium.

    Hence must he seek a pardon for his deeds,
    and more, for thoughts desiring epilogue,
    for now he sees that tragedy in sum
     is shared by all, as well as providence,
    though scattered through their lives in random lots.
    The difference between men's lives can but
    be metered with respect to dark and light
    events, in how aware are they of one
    another and how closely touched they feel
    each other's desperate plight or fortune bright.
    Entangled destinies unfold no less
    than myriad opportunities for each
    to find an endless source of grief or joy.


    'Tis often said that circumstance provides
    much joy for one by an event that brings
    much woe to grieve another.
                                                 So that joy
    requires that we know of good and yet
    be unaware of bad in like amount,
    with grief comprised in mirror likeness so.
    How then to blame the Gods for all of pain,
    full half arising from grave ignorance?

    My master soon was cast aside by Time,
    arriving then before the throne where stern
    Osiris charges souls to answer "No"
    to two and forty accusations made,
    For even Kings are judged, though they be true,  
    to know if Life has tempered them with blows
    sufficient to insure respect be paid
    to light and dark designs the Gods imbue.


    To sail the Sun Boat must from him demand
    acceptance true of what befell his life,
    to put away the passions of his youth
    and cast aside his need for those he loved
    or he may follow on Anubis' path,
    mere shadow in the twilight of despair.

    The God assured: to board this vessel bright
    with bronze and gold, my Master left that Hall.


    Creations cannot know if Gods' demands
    are satisfied by deeds or softened by
    the mercy They bestow.
                                            Perhaps amused,
    perhaps bemused, distracted possibly,
    Osiris overlooked the flaw that marred
    repose that day, dismissing what He would
    not see,
                  a single tear beyond recall
    that took ten thousand years or more to fall.

 

 

 

To play (MIDI), click here That Is The Road She Went

 

 
        A Distant Dream

    A cloud,
    a fog obscures
    my memory.


    A dream of Her,
    I know,

    a haunting vision
    that brings the pain
    of happiness,

    now gone,
    forlorn,
    and torn from me.


Dare I sleep?
and dream?
Within a dream so deep
I fall;

to find
a reality of her
that lived so long before;

to know
an actuality of her,
that life will not recall.

Then must I weep;
for in my dream,
I know too well
I may not keep my love,

and when I awake
to forsake my sleep,
my love will also lose
her life once more.

   

 

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Copyright 1998, by Richard J. Waters