hearts
Valentine's day. Don't need it if you have gone far enough...
image by dsnake1
hearts
1993
whose heart beats harder?
your drug spiked one
or mine's brimming with pain?
your hair has fallen in clumps
your cheeks have sunken, pale.
yet you have strength for a smile.
outside the ward windows
two sparrows fly by, chirping.
oh, how we long to be free too.
13/02/2014
**********
Update July 2021 : I submitted this poem for an anthology of poetry about palliative care (open to 26 Asia Pacific countries and territories, in 15 languages). This poem was selected and published in print in to let the light in : an anthology of life and death, 2021.
"I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Shared on Poetry pantry #189 at Poets United.
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2014
hearts
1993
whose heart beats harder?
your drug spiked one
or mine's brimming with pain?
your hair has fallen in clumps
your cheeks have sunken, pale.
yet you have strength for a smile.
outside the ward windows
two sparrows fly by, chirping.
oh, how we long to be free too.
13/02/2014
**********
Update July 2021 : I submitted this poem for an anthology of poetry about palliative care (open to 26 Asia Pacific countries and territories, in 15 languages). This poem was selected and published in print in to let the light in : an anthology of life and death, 2021.
"I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Shared on Poetry pantry #189 at Poets United.
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2014
posted by dsnake1 at 10:16 PM
19 Comments:
"yet you have strength for a smile" - brings out some brightness while in a hospital... it describes that feeling well.
Short, crisp and intense. Love is the most effective panacea for one in pain.
Enjoyed this - especially the last line.
ouch. def a darkness...the feeling of being trapped....when that is in love, you have to wonder if it really is or if we are just putting on a show...
Wonderful Piece. ***** :-)(five stars and a smiley sticker)
ZQ
Strength of forbearance, love and freedom depicted wonderfully...
Ah, as long as hearts beat, I think, they yearn to be free! (Despite the pain.)
This made my heart beat a little harder--love in its most enduring form
I can tell the melancholy here rooted from a long time ago. It's too easy to listen to the song that plays here but to understand the pain in it is quite too hard to measure. Excellent!
Natasa,
hospitals are dreary places for most. i wanted to show that there's still hope and light in such places. :)
madhumakhi,
yes, it is. it can lessen the pain.
Anthony,
thank you. :)
Brian,
this poem was about how a person very close to me was dying of cancer. yes, we felt trapped, and unfair that a lousy hand was dealt.
ZQ,
thank you for the smiley sticker and 5 stars. :)
Sumana,
thank you. love can sometimes pull you through a crisis.
Mary,
yes, as long as it beats, the heart yearns to be free. :)
Audrey,
:)
thank you!
thank you, kelvin.
yes, it was rooted from a long time ago. somehow, the memories came back (Susan's prompt at PU helps), and i wrote it in one attempt. :)
... strength for a smile... a wondrous line and testament to the voraciousness of a loving heart.
thank you, Kim. :)
Oh the pain of two hearts, the suffering one, and the visitor, suffering too for his loved one.....I can see those sparrows! And the wan smile. The human condition, captured perfectly in your poem.
thank you, Sherry! the poem works! :)
Beautifully expressed!!
hey magiceye, great to see you around. :)
For me, this one, reads like looking in the mirror...
Magaly, you beat them, you beat what was coming at you, and you beat them well.
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