Ave Atque Vale
Though
they make
your eyes shine
your hand reach out
not even these dreams can make you love me.
It's cruel time breaks like glass but crueler still
to see you smile
as if you
want me
still.
March 2022
posted for dVerse Poets: Meeting the Bar
Images: Hands, © Eugeny Kozhevnikov Fair Use
Vistation, photomanipulation © joyannjones
Sheer mastery of content and form!
ReplyDeleteOh my, this makes my heart ache, Joy. You know, I tried to read the post at dverse and went in to brain freeze about halfway through. One look at your poem and I see exactly what this form is. But back to what you've done here. This is both the kindness and cruelty of such dreams at our stage of life. Kind because youthful delights are behind us; cruel for the same reason and one doesn't like to be teased. Ah well, but it does make my heart ache. Splendidly done, Joy. You seem to be really rolling with the short forms of late!
ReplyDeleteYes, having them gone but still living those things in dreams are wishes and bones indeed. Thanks, Shay.
DeleteIt is cruelty from both sides of that equation, one who wants another to love them who doesn't and when one loves another but doesn't want to anymore. Things that can't be shaken and cause so much anguish. You articulated that so well in so few words.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lisa. Much appreciated.
Deleteso much unrequitedness in this ekphrastic triangle!
ReplyDeleteOh, that's a special kind of cruelty, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteVoids are unbreachable when hello and farewell are the same gesture. And so arch for a poem like this - an exquisite despair. Well done H.
ReplyDeleteJust another dream, B. Thanks for reading.
DeleteOh my...oh my oh my...I love poetry that catches, you know. things like exactly that, and sadly I know who I am sending your link to....a wonderful person, but....it fits too well to what is happening....so your poem rather resonates more than powerfully with me, intellectually, psychologically, personally, emotionally...
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ain. It means a lot to me that this poem said something to you on that level.
DeleteI like the hour glass form you chose, and your wielding of words here.
ReplyDeleteI was just listening yesterday to Bonnie Raitt sing "I can't make you love me if you don't". Emotions are so complicated, and yes, those ghosts linger.
ReplyDeleteSo well said, Joy. Sigh. Aging hearts with our tattered dreams........
ReplyDeleteWhat a sad truth: "not even these dreams can make you love me."
ReplyDeleteBeautifully crafted poem.
Oh the ache in this poem... I really love what you did with the second half, and that smile which tells me that a heart may break over and over.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written, Joy! I think the photo you used is this poem.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know the title's meaning so looked it up. Your pen is rather more concise (and thus to my eye, more impactful) than the Swinburne pen that popped up in the search. And the emotions you distill, we all know that pungent flavor ~
ReplyDelete