The first rays of sunshine
That wake me up in the morning
Bring the first thoughts of you
Lying dormant in my dreams.
Are you awake too, somewhere,
Feeling the morning glow
Of sunshine,
Spanning the bridge from
Dreams to reality?
No, oceans across
Where the earth lies under the cover
Of darkness
It is not yet daylight.
Somewhere in the night, then,
You are probably
Watching the star
I saw setting
Hours ago.
With each breath I take, I wonder:
Somewhere you are,
Breathing the same air.
But where, oh where
Are you
At this moment?
Doing what has to be done,
Or undoing what ought not to stay?
Does the thought of me
Ever cross your mind?
Do you too, sometimes
Smile
Sitting at your work desk,
Wondering where I am,
How I am?
Do you too welcome
The first showers of season,
The first blossom of spring,
Wondering if I feel it too?
Or are you too busy,
Your thoughts otherwise occupied,
With no room for me
Or my mind?
Your very existence
Is enough
For me
To live,
To love
The life
On the same earth
I share with you.
With every shade of sunset I see you,
I see you in the light
Of the evening star;
Throughout the night,
As the constellations
March across the milky way,
I lay awake,
Wondering if you see them too.
No, continents across
Where you stay,
It is not yet night,
And the towns and cities
Abuzz with activities,
People working
For daily living,
With you somewhere among them –
Where exactly?
I know not:
Probably stopping at a traffic signal
Or crossing a crowded street.
Somehow it does not matter –
As long as you are
Somewhere there:
Sharing the same earth,
Breathing the same air;
I can go on
With a smile in my thoughts
With yet another day.
First I want to say that I was told by somebody that this poem was incredibly beautiful and they was right. I’ve actually read it several times but each time I was pushed for time and so was unable to comment. I love buttercups comment by the way. You really seem to capture what she feels.
And now for me. I too have experienced the difficulties of love and distance. If you have read my poems I’m sure you’ve picked up on the theme. At times it as drove me out of my mind, and it is so, so sad that love has to encounter so many obstacles.
Ok, the first stanza captures my thoughts and feelings each morning when I wake. Though it is night there instead of day, and I wonder, I wonder if she is sleeping soundly and dreaming happy, happy dreams.
Your first stanza captures so much emotion, and it’s all reduced to a single moment, a single thought. Who would think so much emotion could be contained in a thought, in a moment which hardly spans a second. Ah, but I come to the second stanza and you too realise its not yet daybreak but still night where you love lies.
I love the line when you write “it is not yet daylight, somewhere in the night then” So beautiful, the poem seems to turn on the word “then”. For now we get the sense of time, distance and thought. “Are you watching the star I saw set hours ago” It feels so tender, so beautiful; with a sense of longing desire, yet it is etched with sadness too.
And then the next inevitable thoughts “are you thinking of me too” Do you feel the same things I do. I like how you express feeling you have on your own, feeling the rain and the first blossom, and how you’d like to share them with the one you love. So you hope they feel them too, though beneath the surface this suggests how you long to feel or experience them together. And this is not just rain or blossom, but how you want to share life and moments of happiness together. Yes I love the stanza that buttercup mentioned too, and in many respects to reinforces what I have just said. Everyone who is in love, and yet apart, longs to share such moments together; to sit and share the world around them, content and happy in their love.
Oh, the last stanza suggests that we have no choice but to carry on with our daily lives, sad to be a part, but happy to know that somewhere are love is alive and breathing. This is a beautiful poem which I will read many more times.
Posted: Aug 4, 2008
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