Forgotten
When you are old and weary,
And alone by the fire under the white light of the moon,
And slowly drift back to when you were happy,
And scream into the night with desires unsatisfied
The grey hair of yours will be brushing your ever changing face,
But don’t bask in your sorrows; don’t drown in your shame
Others only loved you in your moments of early youth
But there will always be one who loved you for your truth
My only thought was of you – permanent and painful
And I wanted all of you, everyday for eternity
But now gazing into your hazel eyes I see hints of blue
You are catching a cold from the ice that now pervades your soul
Now you will be sitting there, unaware of the bird’s flight
And murmuring into the darkness that it will be alright
And realizing that the one missing was hidden behind a cluster of stars
And now I must stop loving you, but I will love the memories that will always be ours
After many failed attempts at writing a poem, I decided to look back to the content we covered in Creative Writing last year which inspired me to create this piece. It is to a degree an emulation from W.B Yeats on his poem “When you are old”, and I took his brilliant idea of how to structure the poem as well as the repetition of “And”. There was something about this poem that pulled me in as it shows how at a younger age there is a veil that we tend to place upon ourselves. We may not recognize it, but others will only admire this false persona that we have created, which takes away from the purity of what “true love” is meant to embody. It also illuminates how at an old age we may feel these bouts of loneliness and the people who admired us before will have already left. The boy is symbolized through the “bird” and how his form of love is fleeting, but his memories will never fade in the other’s mind. Also, the feeling of regret permeates this entire piece with the use of “And” to show longing; at the end of the poem, even my intentional choice to leave out the period leaves the woman at a point where she is left with “desires unsatisfied”. Although this is a romantic piece, it beautifully weaves in the idea that people try too often to be what they are not, which creates this illusion that they are being admired for their true self.
Emulation:
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/when-you-are-old
Image:
https://weheartit.com/entry/72189427
