Tuesday, October 10, 2017

A Thought-Provoking Rare Poem

Can't even remember where I found this gem earlier this year, as a random internet search to credit the source turned up nothing.

Poem Hunter.com has the author's biography (he was a poet laureate) and some of his other poetry but not this one. 

Anyway, this is one piece I enjoy reading again and again. I hope you like it, too.


On Parting
by William Jay Smith

Time that is recorded is not now,
Now when the train is leaving, and the clock
Is hooded in the distance, when the heart cries: How
Can you be leaving, for there is no time?

Some delight in the journey, in the crossing
Of accepted boundaries; you go
Knowing you love what's left, yourself, your loss
Of―
         knowing the wheels will say, You do not know.

Rain is falling, and there is no rest.
Where are there tears enough to drown the sun?
Love also dies; the dead have loved you best:

Look for them there in the dark where the rails run.





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