Time Off

It was good to take a day and not press myself to do everything. I guess I am still a little nervous about starting my master's studies.

I have just learned that a former classmate's son will be posted to Iraq within the next week and it makes my heart sore, for her son and for her, to think of yet another American soldier fighting to, essentially, protect Bush's oil. This is so much about profits for the military-industrial complex more than anything else, although there are many considerations involved. My friend's son has three children of his own and, although I do not know their ages, I can imagine how they must be feeling right now after having said "Good-bye," to my own father, many years ago, as he headed for Vietnam. So, my heart, thoughts, and prayers this morning are with Pam and her family. The only comfort I can offer is to remind all of us that my Dad came back alive and well.

I was just re-reading some of my former entries and some of my poetry, too. As there has been very little of the feedback I had hoped to generate, I still have very few external resources to use in judging the quality of my poems, so I will just hope they are not too badly written and continue to impose them on all and sundry who may happen across this blog. That said, I will try to compose a brief poem right now for my friend's son and for all who have had to say good-byes without knowing when, or if, they would be seeing their loved ones again.

Feeling "Forever"

Your tears, in a place they're not usually found -
Your face, help etch your visage into my mind.
Those sad, sad tears, like mirrors,
Reflect the images in my heart, I find.
My face is damp, my heart is sore,
As you travel to a foreign shore.
It is not so much the "Good-bye" I mind,
Or even being left so unceremoniously behind,
It's the not knowing, if or when,
I will get to see your face, touch your hand,
Or hug you again.
It is times like these that cause love's pain
In mind and heart, though it would never do to
Trade it for some lesser thing,
In order to lose these tears, this ache,
This desperate need to hold you close
Fighting in my heart all other calls that
Threaten to take your life far from my reach,
Too far for my love to protect, to touch, to hold and defend
From what you are facing this day
At your journey's end.
Those sweet, rare tears, unbidden, slowly traverse
The plains of your beautiful, sad face,
Remaining suspended forever
In my heart, in my mind,
Even if what eventually follows is a joyful
Reunion embrace with you safe.
This moment will remain suspended
Forever, never to be forgotten.
Our lives are so upended
By having to say "Good-bye."
Having to live with not knowing, until some unseen future date,
If all the love we give today
Will somehow have been too late.
My heart is with you, and has always been;
You are a rampart of my life's sure fortress
Now felled in this world of pain.
Yet, that single, still tear
Remains glistening in the air
With a life of its own,
Sustaining us,
Until we can be together again.

(Revised March 17, 2007 by the author.)