A Long, Long Way from Home

My father lies in an orchard,

My mother lies at his side,

But once, a million years ago

He made that girl his bride.

And love was all that they knew back then

In that world of endless time,

They conjured me in a magic glen

And they shared their lives with mine.

 

But life is merely a dripping tap

With a leak that can’t be sealed,

And much as we’d like to take it back

Once lived, it can’t be healed.

It drips away through our laughter,

It drips away through our pain,

It slips away on our sunny days

And fills our gutters with rain.

 

We’ve seen where that grand horizon lies,

So far away for the young,

And seek to fill it with needs, and deeds

That never will be undone.

But while we’re chasing our dreams and schemes

Ignoring what we were told,

That life is merely a race to run

The people we love grow old.

 

And one by one they depart from us

Like a breath of wind in the trees,

With nothing to mark their passing now

But a stone in the cemetery.

The end of time comes to all of us

When that tap will cease its drip,

That dreaded death that will take your breath,

Your mind, and the rest of it.

 

And people say it’s a void that takes

Our memories, one by one,

My folk live on, though a long time gone

In the mind of this orphan son.

I sometimes sit, and I think of it

On the grey of their granite stone,

And weep for the years they’ve been asleep,

I’m a long, long way from home!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[MomzillaNC]

A very poignant write, Dave. It’s a hard thing sometimes to think on our loved ones who’ve passed and the times we shared with them. To know the memories are all we have left, then to contemplate our own end rushing toward us, bleeding away those precious memories… Your poem perfectly expresses that state of mind.

[TPK Stories]

...mourn those we love who have passed on while living our lives until we ourselves pass on...very poignant write David.

[R Smith]

sad and sweet David, i'm a long, long way from home too so I can share this emotion with you, i'm still happy to believe we shall be united again, this is one of my favourites of yours I love the melancholy of poetry and this one has it all, thank you :)

[Avinash]

You have spoken the ultimate truth of life. We always tend to ignore that one day every one of us will be left alone ans somewhere that home exists in memories or may be afterlife.

[Valentine]

This is so sad and yet so perfectly written. I expect with you in Australia, your family is buried in England, that leaves you a long long way from home. I moved close to passed on family and away from my loves burial ground. Home, but still not home. You are so talented David.. Valentine

[wordman]

david this is a profound and beautiful write it certainly makes you think back

Oh my... One of your best... I am overcome with emotion

[Simran Kewlani]

In this poetry, you have explained that one fact we all know about; yet it's a beautiful way of describing it to us. I like the analogy you have used in it. :)

[Marie]

I agree with D.R.--"Change is the law of universe." Life rolls on. The only sad thing about death is that a life might not have been lived to the fullest.

[ANTO]

A reflective and poignant poem David. No twists in this one - the outcome; a forgone conclusion however contemplating what has gone before can provide help to deal with present and future troubles and worries. The ancients often contacted their ancestors - one of the reasons they kept them in their own homes well after they had died or in houses of ancestors - it is a human need to feel that the connection is still there (and it is in memory) - an ancient custom that we still perform in modernity.
I liked this 'other' aspect to your writing DLP. Makes one think.