Untitled Poem No. 2
Featured, Poetry — By John Pattison on August 31, 2010 at 1:00 pmI do not see your face in the moon
Though once I saw your face in the moonlight, and
I cannot find you in the sunset
Though once we walked
Through an explosion of amber, ruby and topaz
And talked of nothing and all things and sun things.
I look for you in the stars of steel
And space-age plastics that orbit my backyard
Relaying phone calls not from you and television programs
You never approved of.
Once I had you but now I have lost you.
Yet I do not suffer from the delusions of the brokenhearted
Because I do not see you everywhere I go.
I see only that you are not with me.
2 Comments
Love the contrasts of nature vs. man-made objects, beauty vs. artificiality, near vs. far, love vs. loss.
This is a lovely poem, and it is the best expression of loss I have read in poetry for a long time. Deep, sincere, and not melodramatic or full of heartbroken histrionics. Parts of this remind me of Neruda (“Poema 20″) and there’s an echo of Billy Collins (“Special Glasses”), too.