An exclusive poem from Sam Meekings’ next collection, The Other Shore.
Flight
We go because we long for this: returning.
Because the hardest thing is letting go
we give half our lives to learning
what it is we mean when we talk of home.
Because the hardest thing is letting go
we rush through goodbyes with jokes and laughs.
What is it we mean when we talk of home?
A tiny place that stays unchanged inside our hearts.
We rush through goodbyes with jokes and laughs
then haul off the baggage we cannot forget:
that tiny place that stays unchanged inside our hearts,
the ghost box of memory, solace, regret.
We haul off the baggage we cannot forget
wondering if we might leave behind
the ghost box of memory, solace, regret
for wings and wishes, for hope, for flight.
Wondering if we might leave behind
something of ourselves, we doubt
our wings and wishes, our hopes, our flight.
How much can we bear to live without?
Something of ourselves gives in to doubt.
Since we give half our lives to learning
how much we can bear to live without,
we go. Because we long for this: returning.
Thanks Sam, Hopefully a little bit of us inhabits the ether so others catch and snatch at the remains of a laugh or smile and not a grimace! Lightening darkness with inward laughter.-
Everything costs but just perhaps in the end ….love…cancels out the regrets
Keep on illuminating our lives