Loss

Yellow
catkins drip
from grey willow,
catch early morning light through mist.
Another season dwindles like smoke or ghosts
of long-lost family and friends, and drifts
away with my self-worth, my memory,
the agility of mind and body.

Yet I am are still learning,
in my nostalgic yearning,
to become untethered
like a boat and float.

Kim M. Russell, 8th May 2018

Loss

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: I am Learning Still and linked to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Tuesday Platform

Mish is our host today and she has hit us with a quote from Michelangelo, which was scribbled in the margin of one of his drawings: “Ancora imparo” or “I am still learning’. She has shared further prompts and an anecdote about her mother to show that we can continue to learn new things, right into old age.

Mish says we know that learning takes place in many forms from formal education to the hard knocks of life.  For this prompt, she asks us to write poems about what we are still learning. It can be concrete such as learning to cook or fly fish, or more personal like facing our own emotions, demons or shortcomings. Maybe we have much to learn of society, culture, human interaction or our own reflections in the mirror.  She asks us to be honest and humble; to write from the heart or keep it light.

39 thoughts on “Loss”

  2. It is hard to learn from loss. Since those who are gone evaporate like smoke or ghosts. Thank God for memories. I like the, ” Yellow
    catkins drip
    from grey willow,
    catch early morning light through mist.”
    Sounds like you were in a garden

    Liked by 1 person

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  8. Loss can be overwhelming.. but it does teach us life lessons.. especially like; “to become untethered
    like a boat and float.”

    Liked by 1 person

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  10. Tough to sail away from memories and what we love.
    Boats have a life of their own…
    Seems like a wise thing to do- float way on waters blue & never be blue!

    Liked by 1 person

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  11. My boat floats, but I think it’s still tethered to shore! I am reluctant to let go of all the special memories. This was a provocative read!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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