[lit-ideas] Re: Knowing slipping into something else

 

 

I sent a copy of this to a friend who wants to see anything I write and she
was puzzled and asked if everything was alright between Susan and me.   I
assured her that Susan and I were fine.  I was recalling for the purposes of
this poem a relationship I was in before I met Susan, one I broke off and
for a long time regretted doing so.  I recalled the feelings of loss, of her
beauty, of the regret I felt for having to make that decision.   While this
isn't an "occasional poem," Phil's comment that I thought in black and white
caused me to reach for an image, and this one came to mind.  I recall
knowing certain things powerfully at that time but in recalling them realize
that I was still growing or changing and so now realize that the person who
knew things so certainly back then was slipping slowly into something else -
as everything else was.

 

Lawrence

 

.  

 

                                    Knowing slipping into something else

 

She turned back and the wind 

Caught her scarf and whipped 

It about her shoulders

And the solemnity of her eyes

Seeing me as leaving her,

As she looked that one last time,

The end of all things said.

 

And although I thought I knew

(The incipient burgeoning speaks

As though he knows) it is never 

Reasonable to suppose one is able

To propose the thing later bound

And sealed and flung upon the stairs

Which when opened will reveal

 

What one never really knew - 

Her lovely eyes closed

As she turned and stood,

Giving me one last chance

To rush to her side and turn

Her with my hands and voice

Into the beauty I knew was slipping away.

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