The Final Muse

‘I think I’ve come to the end of things,’

He said, without a tear,

‘But I don’t mind, for I cannot find

A reason to be here.

The hopes I cherished are in the past,

The dreams all come undone,

I look ahead to the future and

I know, there isn’t one.’

 

He sat alone on the patio

And stared on out to the bay,

‘There was a time,’ he began again,

Then stopped in his dismay,

For whitecaps out in the ocean still

Were rolling in to the shore,

Just like they had on another day,

Just like they’d done before.

 

And pictures came to his aging eye

Of the world, how it had been,

When life and love were a world away

When he was just sixteen,

But times and tides had rolled over him

In a restless, reckless ride,

Had torn the very heart out of him

To leave empty space inside.

 

‘There must be a time,’ he thought aloud

‘When it’s right to call it quits,

When you’ve done the things that you wanted to

And it’s fallen all to bits,

With friends and lovers gone on their way

And with not a glance aside,

While I, stiff-necked, and so correct,

Am caught in the sin of pride.’

 

And then, the thought of his darling wife

Had finally raised a tear,

The sense he’d not even noticed her

For the time that she was here,

‘We never know what we’ve got,’ he thought,

‘Til it’s well and truly lost,

Just one more line in the ledger that

Adds up to the final cost.’

 

Then the children, what of the children with

That look of innocent trust,

Who burrowed into that heart you had

When you thought that God was just,

But once they’re grown and you find they’ve flown

To their lives, to stand or fall,

You wait for them to return to you

But you find they never call.

 

‘I think I’ve come to the end of things,’

He said, without a tear,

‘But I don’t mind, for I cannot find

A reason to be here.’

The only sound was the breaking waves

With the salt-spray and its sting,

He looked about like a man who craves,

But none were listening!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[LPS]

Just turning 30 this year, I have spent so much time beating my head against the wall. With many tries and just as many failed attempts, this thirst to succeed sometimes makes us forget what it is really all about. Replacing optimism with bitterness. Well your words hit me like an elbow to the chest. As wind left my body I felt my eyes opened to a different perspective. From this sadness I can learn and for that I thank you so much.

[A Soap Mess Stories]

Another interesting read. Keep writing!

[Ellen Hammond]

I was looking for your usual twist but didn't find one in this heart moving, tear jerking poem. It actually triggers memories of when I used to be a caregiver for more than a few elderly folks. Many of them were at a stage of questioning why they were even still breathing and were wishing they could just end it all. Some never had visits from their children or anyone else. I used to try to engage them in conversations while I was working, or taking my breaks. Sadly, others who worked there couldn't be bothered really listening or trying to chat with them. My heart ached to see how elderly people were ignored when they could teach us so much if we would only take the time...

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Wow! This is such a poignant and personal piece. Your words smacked me right into my own past, when those waves crashed in over me. I was so numb with emptiness that I just couldn't see a place for me in this world. I tried to walk into the waves but was gently nudged back ashore.

After my six-month long hiatus and a time off for the holiday, I have found myself writing and reading again. You are always such a pleasure.

[MomzillaNC]

This one is a very melancholy, yet gentle write. The closing stanza is especially poignant, beginning with the repeated lines from the first. Beautifully executed dénouement.

[Lydia Shutter]

A case of "We didn't start the fire!" Your sense of rhythm and rhyme is flawless. Life will go on....with or without us. Friends might predecease us...and family too....but Mother Nature will prevail. Powerful poetry. Lydi**

[DeathIsRelease]

I really like your poem. I think it represents 2 points that is bound to happen in every bodies life that I relate to. 1. The point in life where you give up because you just don't have anything and not JUST because you don't have anything but because you lost the things you did have or they left you which only makes giving up so much easier 2. You never know what you have until it's gone which is a proven fact in some cases. I love a possible changing point in your poem where he starts saying 'there was a time' but stops to look at the waves. I had the impression that he was going to change his statement and decide there was hope OR SOMETHING but then he just reminisced about how he got to the point he was at. When he finally cried over his wife I thought he would change his earlier statement, that he had found some sort of inspiration or hope but no! I truly loved your poem

[Rana Adalwolfa Simon]

Tragic and beautiful. A wonderfully honest reflection of a life not fully lived.

My only critique would be the last two lines of the second stanza. This seems the only time that you repeat a point, and it feels forced to create the rhyme of the rest of the piece. I'd suggest reworking those two lines to not be so repetitive of each other. Otherwise, lovely work.

[Marie]

I don't think you meant "must" as in inspiration but as in thinking, and this was a list of final thoughts. But I agree with Roarke; there comes a time to get up and move. The past and all its mistakes are gone. The ocean is as old as creation; it doesn't give up and stop rolling in and rolling out.

[R Smith]

David this is immensely sad, i feel the real air of depression coming through in waves, all said though a truly beautiful if melancholic poem, bravo :)