Friday, February 14, 2014

Valentines

You climb down
Mt. Nemrut every year
the night before Valentine's
to sleep in my drawer under
a bunch of old letters.

I nearly forget
what you sound like,
the years between us
have weakened our story
I rarely tell it now.

But we were words in vows once.
I had your chest,
you had my lap,
we made promises
we wanted to be able to keep.




16 comments:

  1. I stand in my feet,
    hopeful that this love
    might be, might happen
    beyond any death word
    called a promise.

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  2. Marlon, there is an ancient tomb at the top of Mount Nemrut, surrounded with beautiful stone sculptures from ancient times. This is a poem about a deceased love. It's true I can barely remember what he sounded like but I do think of him every Valentine's. The years between us are now fourteen.

    Thanks for a lovely comment, I really enjoyed it. I had been trying to write this poem for the past two years. Now it's here.

    Kiss you. <3

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  3. Anonymous2/14/2014

    so touching..so beautiful.....

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  4. "I had your chest,
    you had my lap," These lines add such a tenderness to the love, feeling that closeness.

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  5. i could feel the immense sadness in this poem. the last 2 lines sum up everything.

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  6. i appreciate your reference to of Mount Nemrut and the ancient sculptures of antiquity that must have inspired these lovely words put together as such. let not one day, a Hallmark creation, be the only day of your nostalgia or your sharing your heart. although it might have taken you a while to put together this piece, it was worth it not just as a catharsis for you but well appreciated by us the recipients. write on mi amiga

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  7. really beautiful and lovely! <3

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  8. You are ever more poet, writing of absence with power and dedication. This is beautiful. I have a dead love who is on my dresser, in books and papers, and in my heart. Since it has been 18 years, I no longer remember his faults but I remember his intake of breaths.

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  9. Reading your note to Marlon made me appreciate your opening image so much more - excellent metaphor for an old love. And isn't Valentine's Day the perfect time to remember those who once meant something in our lives, even if we forget them all the other days of the year.

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  10. Rereading old love letters.. no matter the reason --- leaving us with a sense of loss. but your comment made it so much stronger... what a new and brilliant way to see Valentine.

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  11. Promises made... earnest intentions to keep them. You show us, simply, how they may not be enough to insure survival.

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  12. Anonymous2/16/2014

    ah... sigh. deeply felt, taut, real ~

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  13. this is beautiful and sad....

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  14. Aww, this is so lovely, and tender.

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  15. Kenia, how poignant and lovely, and I see from your response to Marlon that this is the saddest loss of all, that of a deceased loved one. I see it has been waiting to write itself and now it is here and it is beautiful. Somewhere, surely he knows.

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  16. I love the beautiful restraint of this, which says so much.

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