Compass Rose

I found you at the bottom of my glass
In the last drop of my well-aged despair
And something inside of me let go.
Something vital died in near silence,
Just a soft clink of my ring
And the breaking of glass...
Far away from where I now stand.

No cartographer could ever map
The distances radiating from here
To all the essential points of my life:
The smiling, the gasping, and the crying out.
Birth, kiss, prayer, rose dropped into a hole
And every time you poured wine,
Filled my glass, and held me through the night.

Reviews

[Eilis]

I like how your title tells us the essentials of the person that is missed. There are people in our lives we feel lost without and even long after they are gone we struggle to let go of that sense of shared existence. The idea that time heals deep wounds is a false one to my mind. The emptiness within is never fully filled again and the loss can seem just as fresh as the first day if something recalls the beginning.

Your poem evokes that for me. A life shared with someone—intertwined as it were—is never fully ours alone. Learning to do that after the fact is like some kind of dark magic some days. Some days it’s just a floating through. I felt that here intensely, beautifully rendered. Excellent work.

[Joli Dy]

I feel connected to you in this moment. Sisters who have been through loss. Still navigating the rippled waters of someone else's choices. Doing well, then not so much... But still me. Still here. Still dreaming dreams.

[Eilis]

Absolutely. I feel the same. These small graces of shared experience can help to move through it all. Thank you for saying so.

[Paul in the Buff]

This feels like a familiar story; one which I have lived before. A deja vu in life's ever winding path.

I miss wine. And I miss those days when I didn't have to miss wine....

[Joli Dy]

We'll be each other's wine.

[Paul in the Buff]

Even better.

[Davidgeo]

That's beautiful writing.

[Joli Dy]

Thank you so much.

[Davidgeo]

my pleasure