Sunday, October 18, 2009

A Little More Introspection

Not a love poem this time, just one that is how I feel... not that anyone cares, but after all, this is the place where I toss little pieces of me to the winds, perhaps hoping that they will coalesce into some sort of covering to warm my heart and protect me from harm and/or any more hurt or unhappiness. Why do I do it? The answer is one that almost every writer gives: Because I have to.

Learning...

I have learned from my own and other's failures
In many things, perhaps even motherhood,
How to roll with the punches, take the blows
And often rise above the whole damned thing.
To forget and forgive: family, friends, enemies,
For there is more to life, and fighting is useless.

Further, I have learned that war is useless,
Feckless, futile, ineffectual, hopeless and a waste.
How have I learned this? By living through
So many, of my own making, and my country's,
So many that I do not want ever to hear
The ludicrous ranting of some useless leader
Who cares so little about peace and prosperity,
About the life and death of his country's people,
That he will simply avoid diplomacy and declare war.

"At Break of dawn...

there is no sunrise... when your lover has gone..." and the damned weather has gone along with me for this miserable week, too. We're going into what they laughingly call 'winter' here in S.F. It just means that we get snivily, drisily dark days when you can stay inside and cry and nobody notices... and you can turn over at sunrise and finally go to sleep and nobody misses you 'cause who goes out in this weather anyway. Well, at least I guess that it means that I have finally come to and realized that after nine years of what I thought of as a 'forever friendship/love' has ended by my being dumped in an email. I still find it hard to figure out how he could spend at least eight years telling me and writing me about how much he loved me and then could suddenly write an email saying he didn't. He couldn't even call me... after I had sent him a phone card when he was in a mess and had no phone he could call me on. So much for love and romance... this is the last time I want to have anything to do with it. I love guys, but I want no more love affairs. What am I saying... at my age I doubt that I will ever have a chance at one again. Love doesn't run out, but I guess that time does. And to think that nine years ago I wasn't looking for love or romance... I was just looking for a writing partner. Well, we did write some interesting poetry together, but that was the extent of it, and now, in my depression, I am having trouble writing my name, let alone any stories. What am I saying again: I wrote a 3-day novel in which he figured prominently, got beaten up and wound up being brushed off, while I turned my sights to another nutty guy. Oh no... it was only fiction, but it felt good to have him beaten up.

One of my problems is that music is a big thing in my life... and certain songs bring K back and are hard to listen to. I love Lee Wiley and some of her songs were so much a part of "us"... like "Any Time, Any Day, Anywhere" which brings him back to me so quickly. And I find myself mooning around the house singing all the terrible old 'when your lover has gone' songs. I had forgotten how many of them there are, and a sweet program on KALW took the time to remind me of ALL of them. At least they serve to remind you that you are not the only person to suffer... there must be thousands... millions... billions... beating their heads against the wall and saying, "Why me? Why me?" And yet... they eventually stop crying and get back to work or play, or something like a normal life... so I guess I will also. But right now, just let me cry and get it out of my system. You don't even have to sympathize -- just tell me to shut up and go away... it might even help me to learn to say goodbye gracefully.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

I Need to see a Face

I think I have just been told goodbye by K. I shall miss him...nine years of almost constant communication is hard to forget about, particularly with someone whose mind seemed to run on the same track as one's own. I'll probably never again know anyone to whom I say, "me too, me too" constantly, and get it back again constantly. Sad times, goodbye times. But I really have to see a face to believe what is said. A look... body language, all that, all necessary really to believe it's true. That, unfortunately will not happen, for it cannot. Sad.

But I guess best thing to do is accept it, so I have written a poem, as usual. Friend Erna from my poetry group also felt a great loss, and feels it is one of my best... I don't know, I can't judge anything this new. Maybe years from now I can look back and judge... if I last that long.

You

You are not my happiness
You are not the center of my life
For I have found contentment
Of a sort.

You may still live within me
In that confined, crowded space
With others I have loved
In my heart.

You cannot push them out
Anymore than I can toss you out
So learn to live with them
As I have.

For life goes on for me now
And even without you I can live
As if you had never been
My only love.

Isn’t it amazing that you fade
Into the clouds of my past
And might even disappear
From my life.

Confined with all the others
In that tiny, over-crowded place
Full of forgotten memories
That is my heart.