A POEM THAT COULD HAVE BEEN MY WIFE'S REPLY TO MY GRIEVING HEART

Remember*

Christina Rossetti

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

*Described by Henry Sidgwick as
“perhaps the most perfect thing
that any living poet has written”

SOME PHILOSOPHICAL RUMINATION (inspired by Nikos Kazantzakis)

Yes, life must go on; in fact, it does right now.

But coping with drastic changes and new realities

Involves some real difficulties.

Memories, habits, plans that can no longer push through

Continue to persist and sorrow lingers on along the way.

Being alone in the deep silence of the soul's night

Brings a wounded heart face to face with itself

Aiming to transcend limitations to better understand

The magnitude of the struggles ahead.

VENCERE!

A POEM OF SORROW

IN PRAISE OF THE PHOENIX
(grieving over my wife's passing away on 25 February 2009)


a pillar drenched with tears seems to be crumbling
because of a barrage of attacks coming from all directions
as a battle is waged against the odds of life challenging
not the strenghth of physique and brawn but the limits
of sanity and nerves, of will and determination,
in a world that has gone silent amid crises and turmoil.


who will sit at the steps of a monument
that will never be erected? who will work on a field
where no life will ever dawn? who will sing victory praises
in a warfare where everyone is a loser? where am I heading to
in a forest where no beaten path has ever been impressed?


the world is full of mysteries and miseries and no faint-hearted
soul will ever survive the heat of a conflict that produces
confusions, clashes and cowardice.


a pillar drenched with tears has fallen like
the proverbial Phoenix but will rise again from the ashes
to conquer and blot out the terror of the unknown
and mock the fierce faces of paper tigers on parade.