Take me in your arms, though they and I both tremble.
Take my ticket, in the shape of a falling fruit tree leaf,
light and red and now yours, after all this time.
Take me to the harvested fields, cleared of crow and ear.
Take me as I am, with my empty emblems in a cherrywood box.
Take time to be silent, and in being so become my healer.
Take all that I have loved or shattered, planted or trampled.
Take me to my wedding, that melody in a dead bedroom.
Take me to my grave, where I will subside at last.
Take a photograph and give it to the waters beneath the bridge.
Take down everything the river rocks say--that is my epitaph.
This is the take to keep at last--it is all there is or should be.
__________
For What's Going On Take This Poem.
Top image created by Bing A.I.
Music: J P Jones Prophet In His Prime
Fireblossom,, that really is a very moving poem. Every image added carried the poem forward to its strong concluding last stanza!
ReplyDelete"This is the take to keep at last--it is all there is or should be. " - Yes, oh yes! Bravo.
I liked the song you shared too.
DeleteI have been absent too long from reading/writing poetry. Lots going on ... a pleasure to read your 'What's Going On' offering. I could not stop thinking about ABBA's "Winner Takes it All" ~ your poem is just that!
ReplyDeleteThis is so moving, Shay. I especially love the first stanza. Wonderful!
ReplyDelete"Take time to be silent, and in being so become my healer."
ReplyDelete"Take all that I have loved or shattered, planted or trampled."
Beautiful, Shay.
...O that back page in my mind... I felt some pain reflecting on your poem, thinking the final take would be nothing without the ones before. But I think the speaker in the poem knows that, and is only emphasizing the present, always present, where to dwell always. But isn't it hard?
ReplyDeleteEach stanza gets stronger and better and each one i declared my favorite until I read the next. And I for the first time played with Microsoft Bing AI - was cool and creepy. I like your image. Fun.
ReplyDelete"Take me as I am, with my empty emblems in a cherrywood box.
ReplyDeleteTake time to be silent, and in being so become my healer."...Beautiful lines.
Your poem has the sense of a review of one's own life, spoken to a gathering....almost a living wake...it's an interesting place to look back over all that has been experienced....
ReplyDeleteVery emotive and depthful...
I don't know if I can call this a love poem, but for me it has that profound feeling that you bring to your love poems, and every line seems to sing of love that grows not through fulfillment but through yearning. I especially loved "..Take me to my wedding, that melody in a dead bedroom..." and the red leaf for a ticket, but too many stellar lines to begin to quote. Out of the park, once again, Shay. And beautiful in language and image.
ReplyDeleteThis took my breath away. Gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteVery moving and beautiful My favourite lines: 'Take time to be silent, and in being so become my healer.' and
ReplyDelete'Take a photograph and give it to the waters beneath the bridge'
Your words cut to the core, Shay, sharp with pain and longing, but also reaches out for connection, that "you" that is being addressed so imperatively in love, because it is known somehow and recognized as able to respond. Adds an immediacy that is at once hopeful and resilient.
ReplyDelete