What an energizing evening! I’ve gotten a good bit of writing done, the blog has done wonders for my writer’s block. I’ve been listening to all kinds of groovy music, Charlie Barnet is on right now, love that horn playing!

I went digging through a book of Irish poems that I got when I was in Derry a couple years ago. This is a poem from one of my favorite poets, Nigel McLoughlin. I never get sick of reading this poem, it’s a soothing one for me.

Song For No Voices

All the words I loved are gone,
Leaving me, mouth stopped,
With this slack tongue,
My jaw locked with rigor.
There are things left unsaid,
Of course there always are,
On one side or the other.

But I remember how my
Outstretched arm would circle
The nape of your neck,
Your head lolling forward,
Full of sleep. The sweat
On the curls below your jaw,
A breast-brush on my thumb
That timed your breathing.

I remember feeling the foetus stir
Beneath your skin, under my limp
Hanging hand, how your turning
Legs encircled mine, hot tears
On my cheek and warm kisses.
It’s these things I’m willing you
To remember, willing you to forget.

What’s left to say? I left
Too quick, too quick, my love,
Like the turn of a kiss; left you
To batten down your grief with nails;
Give sorrow to the warm wood and
Tell our child, that I never knew,
I never knew.

-Nigel McLoughlin

I just love this one. I can empathize with 'things left unsaid', 'hot tears and warm kisses', the memories, the grief. Poetry is one of the many reasons why I love life.