Still silent seamless sorrow as the shadows of the day recede
My loss and longing washes over me
And it feels like my heart might bleed.
To carry both of you with me across the seas of need
I long to have your hands to hold
And from this endless ache be freed.
Love sets us free to chase our dreams
Make no mistaking there
But the hollow place inside of me, still wishes you were here.
© Alison Jean Hankinson
For Mental Health Awareness Week 2018.
For my girls. Whom I love, every day and more. For my Ellen across the seas. Some days leave a gaping chasm of loss. Hold your children tight when they are small if you are going to give them wings to fly. XXXXX
I am sharing this for open link night on d’Verse and of course the hand holding is part of the theme. For my beautiful girls. XXXX
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Oh I can so see that chasm of separation… but I hope they are both well and grows up fine.
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They are both well and living their lives. XXXX
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I am drawn into this and feel the emotions you’ve written of so well.
I’ve thought a lot about parenting and generations lately….must be because I am now in my 7th decade, children long having left the nest with families of their own. We are all a very close family — even though there is physical distance. I think we as parents invest so much time and so much of ourselves in our children as we rear them….and so much of that time is not remembered by them….certainly not their infanthood or toddler days…and probably, if truth be told, not even very much of elementary school…and once the memories start kicking in for them it’s perhaps in junior high and highschool when their friends have become the center of their universe. But we as parents remember so much….
I guess that is the cycle of things….and why it is so very much more painful to lose a child than to lose a parent who has led a full life? Ah…you have me thinking here.
Yes – National Hand Holding Day — I kind of like that notion! 🙂
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Love to you. XXX I hold your hand in mine as we walk forwards. XXXX
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Your piece is so poignant! You write beautifully about the sadness of distance.
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8 grandchildren bless our days. but our oldest daughter lives in Maryland–so very far from us on the west coast (WA state). But your point is well taken–loving someone means you have to let them go. 27 years ago, my wife moved up here from TX. After we married, none of my three stepdaughters ever moved back there.
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Very nice sound and poem of longing for them.
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The opening line is so beautifully evocative! The longing in this poem is palpable. Sending love and light your way ❤
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They do grow up. And yet we always hold them near, if only in our hearts. (K)
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It’s always a wrench when they find their wings. But our pride in our children holds us steady as we watch them fly away – we know they will return. I felt this poem in my heart and bones, Alison. xxx
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