To A Shadow

I must confess,
Amidst the swirling blizzard
That I had been waiting.
How do I explain
When you lent into the storm
To cradle my focus
As it swam away.

I still remember
The first encounter,
And how when you're a child
Worlds change during a meal.
As the adults in the room hesitated,
I saw then that you lived
In the gap between their words.

I was raised in fear
To believe you spoke only
The language of regret.
To ne'er disturb 'neath the hood
Or pause to revere, the haunting beauty
Of a lingering web
Misting dew drenched fields.

I hear you approach
In dreams, as a soothed calm encompasses
The vague surroundings.
Outside, in the squall
All that haunts us is just time
Looking back, like a drawn
Face in the basin.

I understand now
Perhaps, I realised even then
Under the night somewhere
In the faint darkness
You walk beside me.
Under an emerging moon somewhere
The paths of our shadows meet.

Reviews

[Eilis]

Perhaps there is a comfort in things that are inescapable. Shadows themselves are everywhere and they all change the look of us and what surrounds us when they cross over the light. But without the dark, the light does not have the same power. If life is endless, then what meaning or urgency can it hold.

I love the images you have selected here. They have the ability to offer both a sense of being haunted and a sense of comfort. The drawn face in the basin makes me think of Ivan Ilyich watching himself waste away and struggling with his own mortality. But, you present something different. Something of a friend or relationship of trust. I suppose there are different levels of trust and ways we let go in order to live a full life.

The concept of death as something to anticipate as just a part of life as a whole is compelling. I remember reading some of Robert Frost's poetry at university and thinking what a different concept of death he had to the modern idea. Death walked among the people of the past in a different way. We are often terrorized by the idea, so I love the way your poem explores it in a less menacing context. Great work.

[Beano]

Thank you so much for your insightful and generous response, Eilis. It's appreciated!

Best, Jamie. X

[Beccy]

This reads like a conversational reflection with an intimate and trusted friend. Someone who comforts, who is a constant, like a shadow, always by your side, a calming influence in the maelstrom of life.

I found the second verse in particular to be so telling.

Beccy.

[Beano]

The shadow always by our sides, I guess, is death. But there is something calming and focusing I find in all constants, and especially the main constant.

Thank you as always for taking the time to read and comment, Beccy!

Best, Jamie. X

[alanwgraham]

We can think back to our youth and there is some connection between what was and what is to be but it is tenuous. Our life experiences change us more than we might guess. You've given us a lovely and accomplished poem Jamie which digs into these mysteries.
Very thought provoking!
All the best.
Alan

[Beano]

Thank you for your kind words, Alan! They're appeciated! Jamie X

[jacob erin-cilberto]

we meet ourselves as we age...and that gap between words that we are in our parents' conversations becomes our own.
I remember how the kids would sit at the kids' table during get togethers with relatives...and how they would stop the adult conversations to look in on us every once in awhile.
and how time seemed endless to us as kids, days seemed so long.

now they are short...and the gaps are in our memories.

and this poem is so good, Beano. So good.

[Beano]

Thank you for taking the time to read and the wonderfully generous comment, Jacob. It is appreciated! Jamie X