Through the wind

an old work.

  Through the wind

through the wind that whispers through the gutter

through the wind that cut through the branches

there's a message

listen

Hope is heard in the still silence

Hope is seen in the bleakest tones

Form is found in the most incongruent lines

And hope is found in the heart of me,

cast your ears to the whispering breeze

Despite the terrors, inspire smiles

even though I haven't in a while

had the courage or will to smile.

Laughter is the key to the cellar

the children in the garden play, evermore

In Tohoku, the deserts of Yemen

each to their solace, their silent blessings

as the blizzard of the world

tears out their eyes

the wind, the wind

never subsides

nor will I yield without a fight

just strength enough left

for a final flight

goodbye!

through the wind, the wind

the treadmill spin

born again, alive again

through the wind. 

2014.

Author's Note

Found in an old notebook. I do not even remember writing this work. I have no answers as to what this is about but I liked it.

Reviews

[Julie McCarthy (juliesp..]

Love this
Look for some more old work

Hope you are well !

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

thanks Julie! I go through ups and downs, sorry if i reply late. but i love your comments and look forward to them always. Ern.

[D. Mansfield]

I liked it as well. I thought I might be alo e in finding old bits of writing all the time and ha I g mo memory of writing it. This poem reminds me of something my father said often to us, "don't let the b******s get you down". I reeks of attitude willing yourself to smile when nothing good is around you.

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

it's good fun to go over your old work., i highly reccomend it. and more often than not, you find yourself enjoying wat you wrote long ago. better than your average bookstore.

reading this, i think i wrote this in order to console myself. feeling down and trying to convince myself to keep going.

anyway, thanks for your comment!

[John the Baptist]

"Laughter is the key to the cellar." I really like that line. Who ever saw a laughing religious fanatic?

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

absolutely. a sense of humour is something one cannot live without. we're capable of laughing in the bleakest hours.

[Samuel Dickens]

I sense your feeling of kinship with the wind as it goes here and there. It's route is subject to obstacles everywhere, but it cannot stop, nor should it. I hope I'm not oversimplifying, but this is how it seems to me.

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

thanks Samuel. i wrote this a long time ago, so i dont really know what it means either. in any case, i leave all my work open to interpretation. so thank you again for stopping by. hope to see you again.

[lov]

Strangely, this feels like a song you hear in your childhood, something you heard in the tv or the radio, I really can`t explain it, but this does something to me in such a weird but comforting way.

Escapism to better world, even if it`s just in your head.
thank you for your words.

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

thanks so muc for your review! i try to work in a bit of musicality in my poetry (even though i'm not a musical person) and so im glad to hear you vibed.

[Soren]

I decided to reread this magnificent poem that has haunted me and found more meaning in the second reading. Brilliant!! Seeds of genious in this sprouting seed it grows stronger as it goes and has a most haunting feeling that accompanies each revelation. Open to interpretation it took me by storm and have to say it is one of my favorites. My first take on it was given in the line "hope is heard in the still silence" The silence preceeds the action and in that quiet there can only be hope. The message of the wind that does not discriminate amoungst the most lowly the gutter or the highest the branches of the trees it has a message for all. "Laughter is the key to the cellar the children in the garden play, evermore" This message shines. We are all teachers and what we leave with others plays in their minds and actions evermore. If we can give happieness to others despite our pain we have left a legacy. The next stanza emphasizes the turmoil in the world and it is there the wind needs to blow and we need to spread cheer. The world turns and time passes as do we our objective should be to leave behind a smile in our passing wind. I can not tell you how this poem has affected me. Masterful and a piece of art that I will carry with me

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

i make some effort into writing work that rewards a second reading, even though i know most people wont. so i am overjoyed that you took another look at this work. and your interpretation i think is very strong. i do not remember writing this but i know that i was very depressed at the time. hope is heard in the still silence. that is something i experienced. and sharing that insight felt exalting. im very glad you and others spotted that line. hope is rarely a light at the end of a tunnel, it is usually something much more subtle.

[Eilis]

I feel the duality of nature and life in this poem. I find a lot of comfort, almost like a soul-cleansing, when I stand out in a wind like you describe. But it also has a power to destroy. Nature, including human nature, seems to be in so many respects this Janus reality. Depending on how the moment turns.

It’s interesting in your poem how there is this tension between states. Hope is often a willful state. For me anyway. Something i have to work to maintain. But there are moments where it can overpower the dark and hold our heads above water.

I really enjoyed the way the poem shifted between macro and micro in the final three stanzas. There’s something dynamic in the way you’ve written that that makes me feel I’m floating above the earth on the wind and seeing for myself that I’m not alone. The faces and spirits of others being upturned in the same way. It’s a great poem, Ern.

[Marie]

Great use of metaphor in this finely penned and very powerful poem. Your poem is as powerful as the wind, it has the power to uplift, to give strength, to inspire hope, There is no point in trying to defeat the wind, it is invincible. It can upturn strong oak trees from their deep roots, yet the blades of grass simply bend with it and remain untouched by its power and strength. They live to tell the tale because while the mighty oak will not bend to the wind, the little blades of grass sway to and fro with it, they go with the flow, they do not fight against it and they survive because of that ability. The wind has a message for us all, dear Ern. Go with me, it says, because you cannot win against me. I sense a turning point after this poem was penned, it's like a renewal and an acceptance of life as it is, like the little blades of grass. I so enjoyed reading and Congratulate you on writing this absolutely amazing poem, Ern. Superb write! Well done, Ern...

[LisaCarol]

Ern - I enjoyed this poem. Thanks for sharing!

[Lorry]

When we are down we somehow fund the strength to never give up on hope, that one day things will be better and life will once again make sense.
It is that thing within us that no matter what we face, hope never completely extinguishes from us and will one day grow from an irregular spark to the flame that it once was.
That spark is essentially us at our most reduced element, oblivious to sense, yet clinging on in the harshest atmosphere to the life that is and will be again.
Without it our entire universe would be gone, which is a lot to put on someone, which is most likely we just stick the label of hope on it, to stop it overwhelming us.