For Whom

Tuesday 28th November 2023 3:26 pm

With the consistency of smoke
eventually, our ghostly hands
must let go of this life
We may be thinning and fading
or still strong but cut down
However it’s done
the knot must inevitably untie

The light travelled so far
to dance upon our faces
We're alive, as nature is alive
to be strange or just to be
All that energy must return
into the freezing depths of space

Every smile, every joke
every tear, every scowl
all of them evaporate
with the un-cuffing of the soul
Darting back into the endless soup
Our bodies and our names
dying twice and then we’re gone
But for whom
for whom did we exist…

We may never know the subtle ways
we shaped another's journey
We must let our beauty spill
as sunlight on the seas
Splattering our magic
as we go shooting by

For everyone and no one
for you and for me
for those who brought us into being
and all we may encounter
To learn and do, to make and share
We touch the stars on our departure
all these things are left behind

The poetry of existence
is in the nature that all is fleeting
the rhyme of dawn and dusk
Entirely for you and purely for me
I truly loved this life…

[2023]

Comments

Tom

Wed 29th Nov 2023 17:08

Thank you Stephen, John, Mark and Hélène for the additional comments. I'm really pleased you enjoyed this one. I've been writing it in the back of my head for a little while (there are more verses out there) but I finally managed to pin it down as you read.

Thanks again to Graham. I'd left in the 'scaffolding', a repeated phrase I'd used when trying to give the thing some structure and it hadn't occurred to me that it could be removed once the house was built! 😃

And thanks to K Lynn, Tim, Carlton and Pete for stopping by to have a read!

P.S. John and Stephen, I'm really pleased you liked the audio. It was a rush job...

Stephen Gospage

Wed 29th Nov 2023 08:30

High class poetry, Tom. I also enjoyed the reading very much.

John Marks

Tue 28th Nov 2023 19:03

This is a great poem Tom. Speculative poetry is hard to control - we can, if we so choose, speculate endlessly (well, not quite endlessly, as your poem points out!). I admired much in your poem Tom - the diction is so precise - 'un-cuffing' put me in mind of a prisoner I saw at hospital, he was cuffed to two slabs of prison officers and yet had a big smile on his face - he was enjoying an outing! PS I enjoyed your reading a lot, spot on!

M.C. Newberry

Tue 28th Nov 2023 19:03

Classy work - showing the creative care it deserves.
We are but tenants....
And Death our landlord!

Hélène

Tue 28th Nov 2023 14:52

This is a stellar poem Tom. I loved reading every line. Bravissimo!!

Tom

Tue 28th Nov 2023 14:06

Hi Graham, thanks for reading and the advice. I did another edit without the repeated phrase and you're absolutely right, it works much better now! Much appreciated. I'm a big fan of Carl Sagan and always think of his description of the transfer of energies and matter as being very poetic.

Graham Sherwood

Tue 28th Nov 2023 13:55

Lovely work.
I'm always intrigued by the though of us evaporating into the heavens and not just returning to the ground, ie dust to dust (albeit it might be cosmic dust I suppose).

the repetition of for whom did we exist I feel is unnecessary, the previous line in each stanza for whom? is perfect.

There are some lovely lines in this Tom V3 particularly.

well done,

G

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