At The Crossroads
May 27, 2011 by hames1977
Farther and farther apart
the road stretches oppositely
into two directions. I came
to home only to find I did
not belong there anymore.
Strangers fill the rooms,
I keep communing with ghosts.
Speaking to the walls and floors
absorbing echoes and heartbeats
from a dying man.
Like a bird lost in migration
without a nest to lay its wings.
Through the labyrinth of dreams
I am not yet found.
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Posted in Current Affairs, Literature, Memoirs, Philosophy, Poetry, Relationships, Religion, Society, Travel | Tagged absorb, anymore, apart, belong, bird, communication, crossroad, direction, dream, dying, echo, far, floor, found, ghost, heartbeat, home, labyrinth, lost, man, Memoirs, migration, nest, opposite, poem, poetry, road, room, speak, stranger, stretch, two, wall, wing | 16 Comments
I was just thinking about you today and here you are! Ha! What a great ‘travellers’ poem – love the reference to the lost bird in migration (what a terrible thing to happen) and the last line is perfect. Hope you are ok.
dear gabrielle,
wow, it made me happy to read this comment after quite some time having a month hiatus due to my summer vacation in the philippines. well, this poem is a draft i made last march, but i let it stay for a while. then i decided to post it today being sad for not posting a poem last april.
certainly, this poem speaks about how we travelled so far from the life we had in the beginning, when things were much more simpler. of returning to that same spot and you realized that you just don’t belong there anymore.
i am okay gabrielle, and thanks for your thoughtfulness. i am back to write more and read more on wordpress. its wintertime in australia, happy weekend.
Great to see you back Marvin! and with such a thought provoking poem. I often think when I walk round my house of all the people who once lived here and their contribution to its atmosphere – and also how we in turn shall add to it with our presence. I really like this verse;-
”
Strangers fill the rooms,
I keep communing with ghosts.
Speaking to the walls and floors
absorbing echoes and heartbeats
from a dying man….”
Things are never as we remember them. Days were always sunnier, houses always bigger, people always different. The last verse, I feel, shows personal change and perspective and what you have learned on the journey to this realisation. A great poem as always from you Marvin. You’ve been missed!
dear lynda,
in a reassuring way, you have welcomed me back as i begin to sit down and push my pen creating a poem which i feel would communicate, inspire and challenge our thoughts to reason and for self-reflection. i thank you for having such ready arms to welcome me back.
in regards to the poem, i admire how you connect the dwellers to the many houses they have lived in. i think about this and yes, the houses have got some story to tell. and like these houses they are destined to be abandoned, torn down to end its lifespan. man faces the same fate with death.
learning is always part of life’s journey. quite interesting interpretation you have there, which in fact opens up to a broader and clearer perspective. i love this creative exchanges. and i do hope i can catch up the momentum of reading your blog posts too.
godspeed.
Lovely, lovely poem, Marvin. I read this three times over.
Welcome back!
dear leslie,
so much happiness have filled me today, to find your comment and for keeping on reading my poems. thanks indeed, and welcoming me back is like a door being opened wide to a brighter blog space. happy weekend and say my regards to your grand daughter.
Things don’t change, Hames, we do. When we go back, all seems different, but it is we who have changed.
dear adeeyoyo,
i agree to what you have written. yes, things don’t change when you are back home. and might be the melancholy of knowing that we had no control over the things that might happen when we are away from home. i guess, we rest that to the hands of the Almighty.
true, that it is us, who have changed. thanks for this engaging comment. all the best.
Oh, I do hope you are found soon Marvin. I know that feeling, of coming home to ghosts, it is quite a wonder how things change over time. No one is the same, even the people closest to us. I do hope there can be at least some people who won’t remain strangers for life. Well written, you always bring out such truths in your poetry. I admire your work
dear DP,
the feeling of alienation of how things cannot be the way they were before is like a stone thrown into the deep water. yes, im glad that there are people, even if they have changed on the outside remains with the same heart and are ready to rekindle friendships. thanks for the affirmation and appreciation of my poetry. i am blessed to have readers like you, indeed a good friend.
i’ve been coming here to check if you have a new post…so glad to see you are back! as always you left me mesmerized by the beauty of your words….
…it is sunsetzens, i have a new page…
dear zen,
thanks for that warm welcome. i’ll check out your new blogpage to read verses and view some exciting photography. i did have my vacation this summer in the philippines, kindly check my FB profile.
thank you for your readership. all the best to you.
there needs to be word that means lovely and sad all at the same time – perhaps poignant? but somehow that just isn’t encompassing enough,…
dear sarah,
such an elegant way to express your enjoyment on reading this poem. but i guess, your poetry is nobler and visually perfect. i admire your poetry a lot. godspeed.
Beautiful expression. There are some sad feelings in this poem…
dear hiro,
domo arigato. thank you for such a beautiful comment. may you have a fine time there in japan. all the best.