What is the meaning of this longing?
What is this that I feel so profound?
Is it hunger or thirst or loneliness
That comes and stays without sound?
Is it love that is put on a shelf
Waiting for time that will not come?
Is it love that cannot be expressed,
Because of an ancient "rule of thumb"?
Love demands a certain presence.
When that presence is not there,
Love sits on a shelf and grieves:
A sad-faced, distant, despondent glare.
Why grieve my heart, mind, and soul?
For if we are waves immersed in ocean,
There is a unique embrace of oneness,
A flowing rhyme beyond emotion.
No matter where the beloved may be,
There can be a loving exchange.
They frolic in God's ocean of love,
Joyous kindred waves within range.
Barb J. Riley
Copyright ©2001 Barb Riley
In my poem one could hear overtones of Buddhism, Psalms and even Rumi who was Muslim. I wrote it very quickly one evening. I see so many grieving people in my line of work and I think somehow they too have helped me write it. I really think that one of the main feelings in grieving is "longing" -- longing for the presence of those that are no longer here in body, so to say. I think that also the poem emerged from my inner being as a anticipatory grief of my future losses that I was expecting would surface. It sure has reminded me of how to deal with departures in knowing that the connections are still there as if we were waves in water. Anyway, I am glad you liked my poem. Thank you for offering to place it on the One God Site - It could really be considered an interfaith kind of poem.
Peace, joy and hope,
Barb
You can contact Barb at: barb_riley@canada.com.
Last updated: 2001/11/27