Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Pome #2: "A Summer's End" (Reprinted from 5/30/2009, Edited Where Necessary)


I decided to resurrect another forty-year-old poem entitled "A Summer's End." Something decidedly different for me, even then... 

The story takes place on a cliff overlooking the ocean, and a summer thunderstorm begins and increases in intensity, mirroring my characters' conversation.


Thanks for your time.

* * * * *

A Summer's End


A summer's day, so fine and fair,
Brought summer's eve, so warm.
The moon was shining through her hair.
No hint of coming storm.

The day'd been spent eventfully.
New vistas had been sought.
I showed her what she meant to me
And spoke my inner thoughts.

She told me "I've found peace with you.
You mellow out my life."
I answered "Dear, I've thought things through.
I want you as my wife."

She smiled but firmly shook her head,
Which puzzled me a lot,
Until she softly, gently said,
"Let's not ruin what we've got."

The summer moon its dom'nance took
And siphoned off the day.
She climbed the rocky overlook
To view the ocean spray.

On this high cliff she took my hand.
The sea raged far below.
She begged "Please, darling, understand.
I care for you, you know!

"It's just that marriage is passé,
An out-of-date-ideal."
Light rain began, and all I said
Was "No, it's not. It's real."

"You wonderful romanticist,"
She cooed, to keep things light.
But I could not adjust to this.
I knew that I was right.

The summer rain beat harder now;
The ocean sprayed its foam.
I kept the argument alive,
Refused to take her home...

"It's not how I would live," she said.
I said "I'll ask again..."
"You're asking something I can't give!"
"Don't say you can't. You can."

She searched for words, then found the sea.
"Dear, watch the waves withdraw.
They love to touch the shore, like me,
But freedom is their law.

"They need not stay upon the sand
To smooth it free from scars."
I shrugged those words off. "Take my hand!
What's mine may yet be ours."

The summer storm, a tempest spread,
Almost drowned out her plea.
"You haven't heard a word I've said!
How stubborn can you be?"

The storm's force ruled my actions then,
Heart pounding like the waves.
With sorrow for what might have been,
I knew no hope was saved.

I turned and left her, boldly.
Shocked, she never said a word
As I strode away so coldly.
Rain and surf were all I heard.

But swift remorse came; back I looked,
To straighten out this mess...

But she had jumped.

Her life she took.

She did love me...

I guess.

25 comments:

  1. haha whoops. Maybe he should have had such a discussion somewhere that wasn't near a cliff.

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    1. Not a very funny "pome," but I did have to laugh at that comment!

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  2. Where is my reply, I thought I left one late last night?

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    1. One never showed up in my email, True, so I guess it didn't go through.

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    2. Hey we were trying to post at the exact same time, I had a blogger error. Synchronicity...I had to wait...

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  3. Appropriate Title but, such a bittersweet end. I have to say I felt the intensity of the storm circling the couple, He wanted more than she could give. I honestly thought the two would somehow fall into the waves. I guess in a way they did that day. Love is untamed like the sea. It can break your heart crashing into despair.

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    1. Yeah, love can be cruel, but in this case, I think the couple in question were young, immature, impetuous, and maybe a bit stupid! On one hand, you have a stubborn guy who loves a woman who obviously loves him in return, and he can't just let things be and com promise. On the other hand, just because her boyfriend walks away from her after a heated argument, she assumes that she's lost him forever and throws herself off a cliff?

      I was just re-reading the comments from the first time I posted this "pome." Would you believe I had readers asking if it were a true story, or at least based on reality? Why can't people believe something comes completely from a writer's imagination?

      By the way, the title says this pome was edited where necessary. This version says "I turned and left her, boldly," which was originally "I thrust her from me boldly." I changed it so no one would think that his slight push was what really sent her over the cliff's edge.

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    2. Ha I guess you needed to clarify that. Too funny that people thought it was a true story, I guess they get confused with fiction and non-fiction. Hey, one never really knows.

      Well, I am not throwing myself off a cliff for anyone, unless I am actually cliff diving/jumping for fun which I haven’t done in a long time. Haha

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    3. I've done some weird things for "fun," but never jumped off a cliff!

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    4. It was really a rock quarry. I was young and foolish. It was fun on a hot summer day!

      So, what weird thing did you do?

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    5. I rode a bicycle through a huge glass window on somebody's breezeway. I didn't find out until I was in mid-air that the back of the breezeway (where the window was) was overlooking a hill. I probably fell a good twenty feet. I'd probably have been killed if I hadn't been drunk!

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    6. Whoa! That doesn’t sound like fun, glass Yikes! How many cuts did you have?

      At least I cleared the rocks and landed in water!

      Lol well, I guess that was an advantage, being drunk. I am sure you weren’t feeling great the next day.

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    7. Very few cuts. Fortunately, I was wearing long sleeves. I was a bit sore the next day from my landing, but that was about it. Luckily, I landed flat on my back. If not, I could have broken my neck.

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  4. Maybe she slipped by accident?? This is a great poem and a great one-two punch for the ending. She took freedom to a whole new level.

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    1. I think she jumped. Of course, I wrote it, so I should "know," but...

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  5. Well, sometimes love makes intelligent people do stupid things. It’s dark during the storm that is why I think people should ride out the storm and see what the sun might bring.

    Are you saying he pushed her to the edge of sanity? A lot to think about here Silver!

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    1. "Well, sometimes love makes intelligent people do stupid things." You are so right!

      And yes, he definitely pushed her figuratively, if not literally.

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  6. I thought he'd jump--or push her.

    Love,
    Janie

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  7. You always did love the surprise endings! :)

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    1. I like to keep people guessing until the-- Oh, wait, I just said that.

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  8. I do like your original line, ‘I thrust her from me boldly’, as the words do capture the bittersweet details of my personal experience not more that a couple of years ago. So true in describing him as stubborn for an ego shaped by fame and fortune so blindly betrayed his own heart that He did push me away in an unexpected rage, got into his car and drove away never to return to me.
    Shocked I was that tears did not even fall until I was able to believe what had just happened as moments before we were one in an affectionate embrace.
    My heart still yearns for him even though much time has passed but only deafening silence does he give me. Perhaps it is all that he has.. I can not even guess for that only leads to a dark place of despair. To leap from a cliffs edge into a watery grave would almost of been a kinder fate in comparison! How cruel my own heart is for still loving him, but it is something that I can not switch off and dangerous to ponder as sense it makes none.
    It is all I can do but accept that for now we are lovers star-crossed as he lives beyond the cliff edge, beyond the sea, in another country ever so far from me.
    *sighh

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    1. Wow, that sounds like a really heart-rending experience indeed. Thank you for sharing it. Really.

      By the way, I looked at your Blogger profile (as I often do when newer readers comment on my posts) and it says nothing, really. Care to enlighten me as to any aspects of who you are? Just being curious.

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