I heard an owl this morning
just before dawn,
and I thought of you,
all these decades gone:
waking to the doves' gentle coo,
me amazed at waking next to you,
with your dark blackbird heart,
so lovely in my eyes,
soaring / captive Brother eagle,
both longing for
and fearful of
the skies.
Your beauty and your pain
held my heart fast,
fire and rain, I thought would
for forever last,
a fire of passion
felt for no one other,
a rain of tears
when you could not tell me: "Stay,"
and so I
slowly turned
and walked away.
"No easy answers,"
was what you always said,
with your so-easy smile,
and those compelling eyes.
There was an easy answer,
but you could not say the words.
You could not choose just one sparrow,
with the sky so full of birds.
We set the doves free when I left.
Blackbird was playing on the stereo.
I loved you then,
and love you still,
though you may
never know.
I have remained, this lifetime,
a solitary dove.
The answer was,
Brother Dreamer,
then and always,
only ever Love.
an old one from 2013 some of you will have seen before, to be shared with the Poetry Pantry at Poets United Sunday morning. Do come and join us.
I am glad you do remember, and you still love...so often love is forgotten.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful poem, albeit sad and resigned. I love the bird motif and the way you use it. And yes the answer is always Love. You build to that conclusion so well that I didn't see it coming – congratulations on not making it too obvious too early – yet it is so right, in context and overall.
ReplyDeleteOh, Blackbird, bye bye ... "take these broken wings and learn to fly." Soft, I feel this poem soft and gentle for all of its birds and the one that was precious. Thank you for re-posting this.
ReplyDeleteThis is my first time reading this, mi amiga. It is timeless and is beautiful words that are intrameshed to emote. Wonderful as always. Gracias for sharing
ReplyDeleteSome goodbyes, some learnings, some changes... can rip our heart out.
ReplyDeleteThis is so heartbreaking and beautiful! I love this!
ReplyDeleteReally, Sherry, this is a beautifully written poem - so much depth here. Sometimes life is hard, but hopefully good memories remain!
ReplyDeleteI could feel the bird, so tender, so much giving and so full of love. Beautiful. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteThis is beyond beautiful, Sherry!💞 I love the way you have used bird motif in this poem.💞
ReplyDeleteSometimes that feeling lasts a little while other times it never leaves you at all. It can be beautiful and warm for ever yet never fulfilled. What a stunningly beautiful poem Sherry.
ReplyDeleteOne easy question, right? Yes or No. The sprawl of an uneasy world goes forth from there, but your poetry stays true to your answer.
ReplyDeleteNo easy answers.. so haunting.. so heartbreakingly familiar and true.
ReplyDeleteThis gave me chills, especially the line about choosing a sparrow from a sky or birds.
ReplyDeleteLove the sorrow and the way theme of the birds... never easy if you don't tell
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful poem. There is a real clear vision of the life chosen and the costs for me in this piece
ReplyDeleteI love you words of love of yearning Sherry, and a love that strong is impossible to forget.
ReplyDelete"You could not choose just one sparrow,
with the sky so full of birds."
How sad that, I wonder if he regrets.
Anna :o]
you could not choose just one sparrow - oh how that line broke my heart. Lovely piece, my friend, so full of memory and sorrow.
ReplyDeleteThe longing is heartbreaking. The memory makes foe even sadder resolve. The light shines in the end verse where love deceides to abide
ReplyDeleteNice write Sherry
Thanks for droppkng by my Sunday Standard today
Much💞love
Love the affirmation at the end. It reminds me of Thornton Wilder's “The Bridge of San Luis Rey," where the author says in the very last paragraph of the novel: "We ourselves shall be loved for awhile and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses
ReplyDeleteof love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”
This rolls through me like a song--it's a beautiful poem. :)
ReplyDeleteIt could, by someone much more skilled than I, be set to music!
DeleteI cannot help but wonder if the doves were really set free that day. For love still flutters in the heart even when the dream fades away.
ReplyDeleteA sad love story. We do love to complicate things in life don't we?
ReplyDeleteHi, I especially liked all the lines ...
ReplyDeleteZQ
A layered piece that cascades - in beautiful lines - to a shining nugget of wisdom. The lovely mingling of nature images throughout, is inspired. Wonderfully written, Sherry!
ReplyDeleteOne of your best...an extraordinarily sad and beautiful poem of love.
ReplyDeletePS
Hopefully he can choose one sparrow when the sky was full of birds. Besides you are not a plain little brown sparrow you are a bright yellow canary with a lovely song:)
Oh my, this is just beautiful, Sherry. Been there, known that guy...
ReplyDeleteand love you still,
ReplyDeletethough you may never know.
I have remained, this lifetime,
a solitary dove.
The feelings must have been great to sustain for such a long while.
Hank
It may be an old one, Sherry, but it's still as fresh as the morning when you heard the owl. :) So wistful and full of love. A phrase that stands out for me: 'your dark blackbird heart'.
ReplyDeleteso hauntingly sad, yet such a beautiful poem.
ReplyDeleteThe purest form of love anybody can give by being a solitary dove, when the other counterpart could not even choose a single sparrow from the sky full of birds.......
ReplyDelete