.
Everything is gone, gone.
____No one’s ever stayed:
the family and the friends I loved,
____the bread my mother made.
Nothing’s ever gone the way
____I thought that it would go-
springtime brought me sickness
____and the summer gave me woe.
The pain I thought would surely heal
____has never left my side;
how much more we all endure
____than we imagine we’ll abide.
But when this morning I awoke
____with heavy head quite late,
the load I’ve borne a hundred years
____was lessened in its weight.
For up the road came Death herself,
____and bequeathed to me a smile.
She bade me lay my burden down
____and took me for a while.
.
.
C.M. Rivers’ poems have appeared in Badlands, Spoon River, The Wayfarer, Soundings, and elsewhere in print and online. Nominated once for the Pushcart Prize, you can read more of his writing at cmrivers.com. A native of the Pacific Northwest, he currently lives in California.
A very powerful poem; I enjoyed this very much; it has an assured mastery of syntax, as well as being highly imaginative. Well done.
As did I.
Very well-done.
This comment, Joe, if made about a steak, would render it inedible.
A masterful rendering of what is common (or will be) to all of us. Very well expressed.
Sound reckoning.
The poem expressed sadness but is only the dark side speaking. You know everyone has felt the heavy weight and struggle. As John Clare wrote in “I am!”
i’m always impressed by synchronicity. this morning i wrote this poem. it’s basic and doesn’t qualify to the standards herein, it isn’t even exactly about the same theme but it is the heavier, sadder side of life. realism. i thought i would post it.
The Facts
I’ve been cheated out
of my life all my life
i can’t take it anymore
i’ll admit i am no saint
bitter is the bitter truth
i’d prefer to live a lie
but i’m tired of hating life
i’ll resign to what’ve been proved
i can’t rise past circumstance
i am trapped in my own head
maybe this admittance will
give me strength to look ahead
i’d have been more virtuous
to admit this early on
instead of pretending and
waiting my youth on illusions
is there any redemption
in this clarity now come
will my regrets be assuaged
can my life reach God’s kingdom?
For this is the only question
But it’s tackled by the facts
No I cannot be a saint
I can’t even be normal.
And this is another judgement
Something they say to avoid
So that I won’t be jealous of
Those who seem to be just right
This is very moving, C.M.
I really enjoyed your powerful poem. Death and loss have been expressed beautifully.
Man, I really like this poem. I’ve read it out loud several times already and the only reason it was read aloud happens to be that I didn’t want it to bypass my ears.