This poem, Farewell to the Presence, draws clear inspiration from one
of Sir Walter Raleigh’s poems. Echoing Raleigh’s elegiac tone and 
careful rhythm, it tries to explore the quiet desolation of personal 
loss and abandonment in contemporary life. Instead of the grandeur of 
a royal court or the isolation of the sea, the poem dwells on the intimate 
emptiness left behind in familiar spaces when a loved one is gone. It 
hopefully captures the lingering silence that remains after all joy and 
presence have departed.

Gone are the steps once known upon this floor,
No chair remains that bears thy weightful trace;
The keys lie still, thy messages no more—
Of all that breathed, the silence keeps its place.

The kettle sings, yet none shall share the steam,
The mirror blinks, but never shows thy face;
Where laughter dwelt now dwells a fractured dream—
Of all that breathed, the silence keeps its place.

The walls hold marks where frames and hands had been,
The bed is made, untouched in measured grace;
My hours drift through flickers of a screen—
Of all that breathed, the silence keeps its place.

And so, I wear the coat left on the rail,
And step through streets that bear a stranger’s pace;
The rain forgets the names it used to hail—
Of all that breathed, the silence keeps its place.