Goodbye, Distant Love

Poetry
Everyman feels this when drunk and alone after getting dumped.
I sang for you
I danced for you
I wrote for you to win your love
I called for you in night time prayers
I pretended ‘happy for you’ when you adored another
I pretended sorrow when that love went sour
 
So many poems I could have spoken
So many Valentine’s I never sent
So many gifts I kept ungiven
So many kisses aimed for lips but
So many brushed your cheeks
So many times I wanted your hand
So many times I drew back
So many memories in the fire
So many ashes dusting the shore.

© coolhermit 2023
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gee

Such an poignant expression of unrequited love. We’ve all been there and this one certainly brought back a memory that, with time, doesn’t still have the sting you describe here.

coolhermit

that’s my world, Gee – unrequited – but where would we be sans melancholia? rick.

ifyouplease

never felt like this and it must be horrible. i must say after reading your comments Gee and Coolhermit that not all of us have been there and sorry but there is a lot of melancholia even for those of us who never felt this way. but it’s horrible, and beyond my comprehension

hope you’re alright now! cheers

coolhermit

Thanks, Ifyouplease, Melancholy is a deep well from which to draw out (hopefully) good, albeit not happy, poetry – only yesterday I emailed a friend for whom I hold much unrequited affection – along the lines that ‘if we had been lovers years ago would I still remember you’?’ – the answer? Probably not. Wanting something so much only to neglect it and let it slip away once we have it is a paradox slash dilemma on which we feast. I guess it is horrible yet beautiful too – longing for the unattainable, striving for god/the eternal, aching for love… Read more »

ifyouplease

Milan Kundera said that unconsummated love is the most hellish or something like that, excuse my translation from Greek into English from a book translated from his language into Greek let us all remember we are all lost in translation and we remember or forget most of the time things we cannot put into words. anyway this is the book

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1991/05/05/talking-about-the-big-questions/7408a5d4-20bf-4f3e-ac17-3f96d1e22d1f/?utm_term=.84a5fc374fdf

coolhermit

I remember reading his “Unbearable Lightness of Being” immediately after graduating – I wanted to read a book that was not on a syllabus – ‘Immortality’ looks good too (as per the article) I’ve lived in that unconsummated hell for decades – it’s not easy but whoever said life should be easy? You must imagine this Sisyphus happy 🙂

Regarding translations – I loved Kazantzakis’ “Last Temptation of Christ” – read it on an island in Donegal in a hot spell – fabulous 🙂

ifyouplease

i have tried to read Kazantzakis but his Greek is unbearable, i would perhaps read his books translated into English sometimes another language does wonders. why did I end up writing in a foreign language in the first place? because in modern Greek not only my poems but poems in generally do not sound good enough (with the exception of Ritsos and Elytis), had I known ancient Greek well enough I would have tried too. Kazantzakis at least in Greek is not for people like me that want out of respect to any language to be as clear and as… Read more »

coolhermit

In English (I can read no other language bar a smattering of French (with dictionary to hand) ) the Kanzantzakisis dense but very very rich – I have the dvd of the film but K’s work is so much richer 🙂 rick

ifyouplease

the adventures of modern greek language were many and still haven’t stopped. we had a major linguistic problem from the beginning (especially early 19th century), Kazantzakis took let’s say the middle path quite intelligently however he was in favor of Demotiki too much and others wanted more formal Greek language with archaic tendencies not popular at all. And not populist. yes he is dense and he talks a lot. an idealist romanticist perhaps in my opinion.

coolhermit

Thanks for the insight – the middle ground between formal language and the demotic is fraught (for writers) – most veer to one side or the other – I prefer formal but am happy to use demotic – try to mix them if I can 🙂

ifyouplease

Kazantzakis tried to mix them too. thank you too 🙂

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