Original DDE™ surrealistic art entitled “So So Ago” by: rob kistner © 7/25/24
After the rattle of death
after leaving with no goodbye
after bittersweet emancipation faded away
after the hope just imploded
after the joy became a memory
after a new sadness collected day upon day
after the promises echoed empty
after the dreams grew distant
after our days of glory had become the past
after the taste of regret grew
after the loneliness mounted
after sands in the glass spilled away much too fast
what first was a rich blaze
burned through the fodder
sadly hereafter all that remains is ashes and char
the vision was most beautiful
the intention honest and real
its brightness so intense it burned out like a star
I did not know peace would seem so far
I did not know love could be so very quiet
I did not know how this silence would scar
*
rob kistner © 2024
Poetry at: WGO
This poem has depth, Rob – the hard-won peace, the silence……after all the pain. Well said.
Thank you Sherry… 🙂
“after the spaces echoed empty
after the familiar grew distant” . . . “so very quiet”
Gosh!
This is me talking to the dream of peace and love after it died, trampled by the hatred that has manifest itself in Trump.
This is such a strong poem, Rob. I really felt your words!
Thank you Mary… 🙂
Only an overwhelming sadness remains after peace and love go. May love and peace return soon. A poem full of feelings.
Thank you Sumana. In this country, hell, in this world — peace and love seem gone forever. When my post WWII generation let it die, it has not, nor possibly ever will it return as a social movement. With a world wide web, communication is quick, global, and more trivial and meaningless than ever. We are a world hiding behind screens — more humanly isolated than ever. My “peace and love” are dead — RIP. Of course, I’m just a grumpy old man… 🙂
The repetitions pierce the heart, Rob. That something is lost that time cannot regain is driven home with each “after” and then its rhetorical aftermath so to speak, “I never knew ….” Beautifully expressed. ??????????
Thank you Dora. This is now a world of human physical isolation, and a world filled with war after war, being fought because people have forgotten how to, or simply do not understand, the art and necessity of peace. I am thankful my time left here is short. At least I will pass with a memory of a generation who tried to champion peace and love, even though we failed — it was at least in our lexicon. “Come on, people now, smile on each other, everybody get together and try to love one another right now.” In today’s “woke” world, sentiment like that is belittled and ridiculed. So damned sad, so sad. We boomers failed our mission. I apologize… 😐