God Is A Ghost On Wrens' Nest Road

Stanzas spill from my eyes and trail the moon for the loves ones whose life has ebbed away.

Love, let me lend you my ancestral wing

across the distance which keeps us apart

to bestow such comfort as it may bring

for the sorrows that inundate your heart.

 

Stanzas spill from my eyes and trail the moon

for the loved ones whose life has ebbed away,

whose love-light flickered and faded too soon

in the mid of night where they both once lay.

 

I cannot pretend to perceive your pain,

what it must be like to lose wife and child;

but I know the tears that patter like rain

whose ocean runs deep when once beguiled.

 

Sadness is a wall between life and death

in the arch of your back, along your spine;

and the sigh and silence between each breath

is a pulse of promise for all divine.

 

Love, my heart aches as any heart would do.

The blood between us is no longer free.

Whatever you suffer, I suffer too;

and my tears are your tears inside of me.

 

Though I have lost sight of your kindred face,

I feel the beat of your beat in my heart.

I wish for you solace, mercy, and grace

and all the comfort my words can impart.

 

The homestead is hollow, silent and still,

as the moon hovers in her graceful turn,

shining brightly on backs of house and hill

in honor of those who will not return.

 

My thoughts embark on a current of tears.

On a river of sleep, I gaze the shore

where Tracey and Jake give praise to the years

and to the memories you built before.

 

Your love has brightened their pathway to peace

and slippered their souls in heaven’s haiku

and dressed them in glimmers of sweet release

like sunlight distils the evening dew.

 

The wings of morning spin circles of light.

Memories of loved ones dwell in the air.

The loss you’ve suffered I cannot recite,

and it is greater than one soul must bear.

 

My thoughts are gliding through evergreen bones,

encircling sky with wings of the heart,

bursting through vineyards and layers of stones

across the distance which keeps us apart.

Reviews

[Tomás Ó C..]

Great tribute, tragic story. I love the rhyme and the form of the poem...

[Augustus]

I am speechless. I cannot review this poem in my usual style. I wish the tragedy that inspired this poem had never happened. One sublime poem less is a small price to pay for two human lives and two canine ones...

But how often does it happen that masterpieces are created in the deepest mires of sorrow. How true Shelley's words are!
"Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought"

And here, Linda, you have created a masterpiece whether you wanted to or not.
"ancestral wing", "evergreen bones", "sadness is a wall between life and death"... so many of these...so many of these glorious expressions! Enough said....

God bless you Linda! And God bless them all!

[Chris G. Vaillancourt]

Wonderful words, I really enjoyed reading this

[Emma Joy]

Read this twice, not sure how to review, the poem's peculiarly beautiful and yet the core of it is wretchedly tragic, absolutely heartbreaking. You write with extraordinary sensitivity, yet, goodness knows how, your words resound then wrap around my thoughts, 'Whatever you suffer, I suffer too; ~ and my tears are your tears inside of me.' ... then again, that last stanza is as near to anyone describing grief,

'My thoughts are gliding through evergreen bones,
encircling sky with wings of the heart,
bursting through vineyards and layers of stones
across the distance which keeps us apart.'

Belated prayers and hugs.

[NoneOfYourBusiness akaK..]

your author's note drives the beauty of the painful sliver deep into soul pocket~ entrancing~encompassing~ each stanza a bead on the necklet of the cycles of life and tragedy~

[Rory CJ Frankson]

Such a tragidy to mar the season of family treasured with this loss of kin... Condolences called for and compassion for this happenstance, so hard to accept for all that know this family and those that now are not amongst the community.

We have lost family to fire and the living with that pain evident when these trials of life visit us, and steal away our loved ones. Knowing your Uncle will suffer so... of course, I will say prayers over this sad news. That today dampens my spirit to learn of such happening, so close to Christmas...
When all should be and, isn't.

[Richard Williams]

A beautiful work sharply expressed, an intense capture of sadness. Such fine writing.

[Mark]

Linda, This is a deeply personal piece. I have that sense with almost everything of yours that I read; you have that knack for bringing others into your world in a beautiful, persuasive, yet subtle fashion. But though you speak most poignantly of HIS loss, you speak but little of your OWN, and that, to my mind, is this poem's sole lack. But perhaps the song, though written nominally to Kenneth, is in fact a plea to your own soul to understand--this is a question I cannot answer. Instead I offer these few picayune suggestions:
"Lost sight of your kindred face", and "the distance which keeps us apart" tell me that you and Kenneth are not in regular contact, but that your memories of him are sharp, and pleasant.
Perhaps, "was dashed" instead of "has ebbed" away" might better convey the suddenness and unexpected nature of the loss?
"...slippered their souls in Heaven's haiku" GREAT line!
I think distills has TWO "l's".

[Pax Analog]

A beautifully compassionate poem and a reminder of the healing virtue of art turned toward real events, particularly a bloodline tragedy.

"My thoughts are gliding through evergreen bones,/encircling sky with wings of the heart,/bursting through vineyards and layers of stones/across the distance which keeps us apart."

Those eloquent closing lines are not only a message to a loved one, they remind us all of our psychic interconnectivity and the power of prayerful loving intent.

Your elegant attentive spiritual grace remains nonpareil.

[Steel]

Tragedy dissected and measured by words poetic yet authentic. Nothing illustrates loss like music.
Wishing for the best that might be left...what a heartache.