Loss

I have not personally lost someone that was very close to me, but I have observed others that have lost, and I am trying to get a grasp on it I guess.

Is that you when the light turns green
On a day when I happen to be running late?

Are you the flower that makes me take another glance
and sometimes close my eyes and
embrace the fragrance

Are you that pleasant feeling of fresh cut grass beneath my feet?
Are you that glimmer of good in the eyes of strangers that I meet?

I like to think you are these things
that catch me by surprise
And make me have faith in the world again
And take each day in stride

Reviews

[James Hanna-Magill]

Dear Emily

I have been flicking through your recent poetry and found it difficult to choose which to review first.

Why?

Because in the end I felt like I wanted to achieve the impossible and review them all in one go, in one statement, which would serve no useful purpose.

But if I were to try, my opinion would be, from those few I have read, there is a tender light and simplicity that shines through all of them.

I picked this to start but I shall be back for more.

Why did I pick this one?

Because of the few I have looked at the 'message' of this piece is not as easily discernible at first glance as others. It is more allegory than fact.

I can review in all sorts of ways: style, structure, metre, rhyme ...

Take it for granted that I regard all those as working well here.

But I just want to focus on meaning in this piece.

Had you not explained the background to the poem, your wish to capture the feelings associated with the loss of someone close, the meaning would not have jumped straight off the page at me, though the title would have given me a helping hand.

Would that have mattered?

I think it wouldn't.

In fact I never think it does when I read / review.

I would have still admired it as a well shaped poem to which I would have ascribed my own meaning.

However on letting me into the secret, I can now see as if through your eyes.

I no longer need my own light to guide the way.

The remarkable in this poem is that you take the sadness of loss and convert it into benign and enlightened acceptance.

To start I see something of pantheism and reincarnation in this poem.

That a soul departed may be a 'green' 'light', a 'flower', 'fresh cut grass' or my favourite line: 'that glimmer of good in the eyes of strangers that I meet'

However within that line and throughout the poem shines something much more brightly than the merely pantheistic.

And that is hope!

A belief in underlying goodness in this rather dysfunctional world.

A belief in beauty in a world that can sometimes seem very dark.

As your last lines state, all the things you see:

' ... make me have faith in the world again
And take each day in stride.'

As a sample, this piece (such is my experience in all I read) tells me as much about the style of the writer as the writer him or herself.

Not here the embittered tone.

Not here the world of darkness and evil.

Not here the tears of anguish.

Rather a strength of vision that the world we inhabit is a beautiful place.

That within the hearts of those with whom we rub shoulders daily, there is still a light to share, however deep it may have been buried by the trials of life.

Keep that gentle spirit, Emily.

Keep that hope which this beautiful poem so firmly grasps.

And never ever let it go, whatever may befall you in life.

A charming poem.

With my best wishes


James

[Emily Feret]

Wow, I am at a loss for words. What a touching review. Thank you so much for your kind words of encouragement. Reviews like that make me want to write more. There is always hope in life, and I have always tried to be that "glass is half full" type of girl. And I have always tried to infect others with that ideal. James again, I cannot thank you enough for this remarkable start to my day.

Emily

[James Hanna-Magill]

Dear Emily

All I can say to you in response to that is you have just brightened up my day too, through the words of this poem and the gentle spirit of the writer, which restore my belief in humanity.

James

[Frieda P]

Relatable, lost my sister and this is some of what it feels like, lots of emptiness..nicely pen'd.

[Emily Feret]

I am so sorry for your loss and I appreciate so much the time you took to read this

[zainul]

Amazing piece.
I am spellbound by the beauty of the magical presentation.

[Emily Feret]

As always, thank you so so much

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i have ....and to this poem i relate...lost my best friend many years ago to a fire.

and she was the kind of person to which this description would fit exactly.

really nice piece.

jacob

[Emily Feret]

Wow I am so sorry for your loss and thank you so much for taking the time to read

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i just wrote a piece about her..perhaps inspired by this poem..

i also have one up here already.."more than a flicker" which i wrote march 4..which would have been her birthday...she would have been 55--she died when she was only 27---i still do miss her...

but i love your poem.

[Emily Feret]

Wow thank you so much for sharing a piece of your story like that.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your poem...i am always so inspired by reading others' works---

and finding that camaraderie with other poetic spirits.