Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Home
Submit Poems
Login
Sign Up
Member Home
My Poems
My Quotes
My Profile & Settings
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Soup Mail
Contest Results/Status
Contests
Poems
Poets
Famous Poems
Famous Poets
Dictionary
Types of Poems
Videos
Resources
Syllable Counter
Articles
Forum
Blogs
Poem of the Day
New Poems
Anthology
Grammar Check
Greeting Card Maker
Classifieds
Quotes
Short Stories
Member Area
Member Home
My Profile and Settings
My Poems
My Quotes
My Short Stories
My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder
Soup Social
Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us
Member Poems
Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Random
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread
Member Poets
Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War
Poetry Resources
Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
Your IP Address: 216.73.216.214
Your Email Address:
Required
Email Address Not Valid.
To Email Address:
Email Address Not Valid.
Required
Subject
Required
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
My grief is a tide that rises and falls without warning, sweeping away the familiar shores of my being. I write to you not as a poet but as a fellow bearer of sorrow, for the shining sun has dimmed in my own heart as well. Loss leaves us bewildered, asking who we can trust when even the ground beneath us shifts and crumbles. The world, so beautifully crafted and cruel, enforces its punitive measures, and Webster's Law Dictionary might define punitive simply as, but when enforced this new practice seems bent on prey. And there too the blind is the loss. Lilly kissed a rose—a gentle act of love—and was cast into chains. This new economy, sharp-edged and ravenous, feeds on the frail and the kind with open hands. Compassion and empathy, once the pillars of our shared humanity, now seem relics of a time gone by. Where did they go? Where does a soul, simple of heart and like mind, find his place when the world turns its face and acts blind? Now, my room is my cell, and solitary confinement is no teacher of gentleness. Justice, unkind and unseeing, renders its verdicts without mercy. Roses are lilies, rivers are streams, and yet none of these now flow freely. Even the smallest fish, safe in the shallows, are swept away by high tides forced into the deep, there then they are eaton their beauty a memory now gone. In one end and out the other, like cremation, without the flames. Such loss has rippled through my heart and mind, leaving me bereft. How can I miss what is gone and yet feel its absence so keenly? Blind from the pain of it all, I cry out to the Lord, seeking light, seeking a way to walk forward through the valley of my shadow called death. I see children swinging under the shade of trees, their laughter a balm I cannot feel. Their joy is untouched by the tides that pull at me. Still, the sea calls. Its waves, indifferent and vast, beckon me to wade into the surf, to lose myself in its embrace. It feels final, yet strangely tender—a surrender, not even in such is defeat. Perhaps, dear reader, you too hear the sea's call. Perhaps you long for its quiet peace as I do. But if I may offer one small kindness, it is this: in the spaces between sorrow, remember the lilies, the rivers, the fishing pole once held in my hand. Hold them close, and let their memory keep you enamoured to the sand of your own sandy shore. With a heart weighed down yet tender and kind, I am James
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required