Wednesday, June 24, 2009

I Could Not Bear The Music That Made The Memory Such A Killing Thing

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,
And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year’s bitter loving must remain
Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide!

There are a hundred places where I fear
To go,—so with his memory they brim!
And entering with relief some quiet place
Where never fell his foot or shone his face I say,
“There is no memory of him here!”
And so stand stricken, so remembering him!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I once heard something from a great teacher of mine, god has given a blessing that the dead are forgotten, so why didn't he give a blessing that the past can be forgotten too? he answered only once in our mind something is "dead", permanently gone, can we begin to forget about it, until we accept that reality, no blessing will help us forget, because we don't let ourselves forget.

Chana said...

Yes, but I wouldn't want to forget the past anyway! The past is important; it informs one's present. I just want to figure out how to have the past exist and be very happy about it, as I am, and simultaneously not be so reminded at every moment. God forbid that any past should be dead to me; that's not the way I am...