September 22, 2010

  • Lonely shorelines

    The other night I was walking along the ghostly streets of my campus in the middle of the night, tired, overworked, and trying to get home.  As I walked, half-conscious, some words drifted into my mind, and after they did I realized they connected with a person I had to say goodbye to recently, a permanent goodbye.  So I kept them in my head, and scrawled them down when I got home, and then fell asleep.

    I don’t know why people are always leaving my life, or really why any relationships end.  I’m not sure I want to know.  I’d rather stay the idealist that I grew up.  Maybe I’d rather keep forgetting these things.  But there are moments, terrible, terrifying moments, when we are forced to remember.  And in those moments, we have to remember how to say goodbye. 

    Ships of the East

    I always forget things
    like how to say goodbye
    that anchors get swept away
    and why ships leave their ports

    I always forget things
    like the sun on your face
    why there are colors
    and where life’s secrets are stored

    I always forget things
    like what I mean to you
    how beaches were made
    and when I last put up a mast

    I always forget things
    like the rain that Fall morning
    the worlds we’ve run away from
    and that I can’t touch the past

    I always forget things
    like where I woke up yesterday
    that there’s no horizon in space
    and that it doesn’t matter what I say

    I always forget things
    like that everyone exists just once
    the bigness of the ocean
    and that that meant you could sail away

Comments (7)

  • I think the same way. I’m rather tired of people leaving and going away. but i guess that’s life sadly. nice poem

  • Sometimes its best that they go… really.

  • We say goodbye to one when we believe another to be a better option

    Dream

  • @Guess who - 

    Well, the person was just a friend.  And while sometimes we drift away from our friends, this wasn’t like that. It was a goodbye.

  • @theladyofabundance - 

    This is true, and I’ve mulled over those thoughts as well. They are the other side of the coin.  But the pros to the parting are dispassionate, rational thoughts that don’t admit of the realness of the relationships  Even if someone walks away and it’s a good thing, they are still a part of the way your life went, and if they were a meaningful part of it at the time, it can still be difficult to say goodbye.

    But yes, what you say is quite true.

  • i think all good things must end because if they didn’t we wouldn’t understand fully how important and precious they were. I’m tired to being left behind but at least you can keep the memories.

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