She Died Soon After Many Years of Pain

March 3, 2017

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is death.

Today’s poem is about the beauty of accompanying someone to the brink of death.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

She died soon after many years of pain,

A remnant of the person she once was.

Yet in the days of peace before her death

We shared a pleasure brief but undismayed.

How strange is time! The precious days so slow

Passed like a sunset seeming without end,

Agonizing in its aching beauty,

Distillate of joy before the darkness.

She was the single parent of three sons,

Leaving them just past the door to manhood,

Herself not old, still ripe with postponed passion,

Never now to know again its treasure.

But love was like a dancer in those days,

Filling every moment with its grace,

An evanescent feeling, yes, but present

As sunlight on a green and open field;

A love that felt just like the pith of being,

Naked and alone, but unashamed,

Knowing with the certainty of sorrow

That life is no more rich than at its end.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/shedie.html. For more poems about death, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/deathpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Death

February 27: One Night I Saw Aaron

February 28: I Wish That I Could Bring You to the Lord

March 1: The Only Hope Is that There Is No Hope

March 2: Life Is Beautiful, My Child

March 3: She Died Soon After Many Years of Pain