Waiting for you became a ritual,

listening for the  sound of your footsteps

in the pounding rain.

The  taste of salt still remains

upon my lips where you left it

and in dreams you are evoked

by the wings of seabirds where I have

pressed our memory.

At daybreak the tide  retreats without

leaving you at my shore and it is

there I accept loss.

At the hollow of my throat I have etched

your name  somehow declaring us sacred.

 

sergio_martinez_cifuentes8600_790

 

 

 

155 thoughts on “rituals”

  10. I’ve never read better poetry on the subject of memories, recollections, or reflection of that most painful of loss attached to an unbidden departure of someone loved so deeply than I find in your poetry Rene. In my mind, the voice flows with soft, smooth intonations so mesmerizing it could be Mnemosyne’s welcome to Elysium on the banks of the River Lethe. It was there Mnemosyne granted the virtuous a gift of forgetfulness, which dulled the sharp edges of broken hearts. The image dovetails perfectly with the words so artfully scribed.

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      1. You are welcome Rene. I should thank you for the beauty you conjure and share freely each day. I always see these deeper connections when I read you. It’s as if your poetry is timeless and the connections to the heart and soul of antiquity are brought to life again in every line. I don’t know when we first started to reflect on ourselves or to explore our inner world through memories and introspection. I just know that we have done it since we were first able to transcribe our thoughts in lasting ways for the future. Now we are the future and the now and soon the past. We leave behind an unfathomable amount of soulful outpouring of every conceivable human experience. Some of these collections of words are immortal and some are the exquisite beauty of a wild flower happened upon by accident and consigned to memory, which long outlasts the moment of discovery and wonder. This is our lasting nature and one of humanity’s redeeming qualities.

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          1. I’ve been fascinated with our creative expressions and art throughout history since I was a wee dragon. To me as a child, museums, art galleries, and libraries were magical places and the only reason I didn’t cry and throw obnoxious tantrums when my grandmother said it was time to leave was because I knew she would bring me back soon and was already plotting a trip to a new museum to surprise me with. What a great pal she was.

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          2. I love museums too, my favorite place to go as a kid was the planetarium, a little later I liked to catch the Grateful Dead music in the round seating as the stars and heavens spun high above us. Art galleries are more interesting now and ancient ruins. Life is grand.

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          3. Aha! Yes, that’s it. And the Grateful Dead was the flagship band of the free spirits that roamed the earth. I often feel a strong connection to ancient ruins and the grand cathedrals of Europe. It’s like they are telling me something in a language I don’t understand but I hear them just the same.

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          5. Oh yes indeedy. Trier was a magical place and I wish I had more time there. I want to go back to the old settlements and just reconnect with my ancestry. I do love visiting the ruins or ancient castles. I feel so much like I belong there.

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          9. Awww, don’t make me jealous by getting there before me 😆 oh, never mind, you can go back to the museum and live stream your walk through to all of us living through your eyes. We’ll call it a virtual Holly-Gram.

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          11. I feel you on that busy thing! I actually was forced to multi-task today and it exhausted me. We male bipedal hominids don’t multi-task well at all. You have a deal. First one there live streams the group. 😁

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          15. I know those people! It’s really rude to pay us all that money and expect us to work too. We got priorities like get paid and have fun, not get paid and work harder. 🤨. (I hope my boss doesn’t read this or I might get an unplanned change in my work status 😬)

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          19. Yes I did. I still work for the Army on contract. It gets renewed every year but I bet if I go to work in my dark gothic steampunk vampire outfit and bite our contracts lady, my contract will not get renewed or they will move me to the section where the other dark gothic steampunk vampires work. At least then I’ll be with my people 🧛🏻‍♂️🤪

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          21. 😂. I think that’s why they put me in the research and development department so I could hang out with all the other wonderfully strange people. Now, if we could just get management to stop making decisions that create more work, we’d be able to get back to being proper introverts.

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          25. Ha ha ha, y e s s s s! I do like to wander too close to madness at times. It’s like a therapeutic massage for my head elves. The secret is not to stay too long. 🤪

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          29. Waaa haaa haaaa! I just had a very clear mental image of that. I would definitely fit right in. I’d have all the kids dancing in the street. 👯‍♀️💃🏼🕺🏻👯‍♂️

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          35. I’m sure anything Resa puts her creative mind and skills to will be perfect. I’m already imagining the breath taking spectacle of it all. I have to remind myself not to gawk and giggle like a tourist. 😁

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          39. I would love to live in Key West and be one of the colorful and eccentric locals. I haven’t been back in many years but I knew it suited me well. Of course, I’d have to have a sail boat too. 😎

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          42. Yes! She was. I often think she was much more than she let on. She believed in silence and descretion in all things so she was never chatty but what she did say and do was always insightful and captivating to me.

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          44. I cannot say it better than that Rene. It’s kinda funny in that no matter how old I get, I think of my grandmother frozen in time and me still that little knee crawler.

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          46. I was blessed with extraordinary grandparents that instilled all of the right strengths and values in me to give me a life full of wonder and adventure. It might have been reading my grandmother’s copy of Tom Sawyer that help me develop a mischievous nature. 😁

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  15. I know this feeling, even today when I am not waiting, I wait.
    You capture life’s moods, victories, losses, whimsies and so much more with your poetry.
    This poem, like many, is a bird in a cage. The door is open, but the bird chooses to remain.
    Love it!

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      1. Your blog, Coeur de feu, only your blog. 😉
        It just struck me, the frequent references to the sea in your work, the waves. I know (more or less) in what neck of the wood you lived, so it dawned on me.

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      1. It is probably the sweetest lullaby. We had a house in Africa a few yards away from the sea. At the Equinox, the waves would crash on the terrace. I spent some of the best years of my childhood going to sleep to the crash of the waves. On one side. And the drums of the Africa village on the other side of the house. Enjoy the sweetest music.

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          1. Yes. You’re right. I han’t thought of when hurricanes reach you. 🙂 Though I can imagine: at the high tides of Equinox, the sea would swell and often a storm would come. The waves crashed on the terrace, and obviously, little sister and I were outside with plastic raincoats to watch the sea and rain mix. 🙂 I will never forget that.
            Exciting? I was lucky. Born in the right family of wanderers. Then I pushed my luck. Just a little. It’s all you need to do, push your luck, try things new.
            Take care Coeur de feu.

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