back there, lights must have dimmed
to sorrow –
have you, too?
~
dear, you…
i am okay – all is as blue as it can be
quenching the brown of my eyes,
i love the red-white lighthouse,
bereft of tourists, amid the green,
i come here often
to find the pain of my solace,
of one kind – the other kind
is left with you –
sweet salt fumes linger on my lips,
the sea looks deep like loss, grains
of sand end up everywhere, like
the thought of you,
i am holding reins over
the beach or i will drown,
and building castles, and collecting
conch shells, and stark-white pebbles,
i will gather some for you, too.
.
For With Real Toads’ At the Seaside Challenge. The last sea I encountered was ruined by the urban mess of a metropolitan. That is not what I wrote about.
I instead remember the seas of Port Blair (2013) as I go about it – I went up that lighthouse on an island nearby only once and still, it left an impression on me. I was on my own, but for the blue expanse ahead and the green on all other sides. The poem is fictional but that memory stirs these emotions in me – the palate of my thoughts turn to blue, grey and blood. Otherwise, I have no recollection of having written a postcard or a letter of this kind. What I had to write stayed within, brown and forlorn like my skin, not turned into the coherency of lines. If it were, it would have been something like this. And as fiction goes, it is never completely so. *winks*
*Also linking it up with Poetry Pantry at PU.
HA's Place 
Beautifully and powerfully written. Bravo.
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This is beyond beautiful, Anmol! 💖 I can feel the waves of pain and loss.. the gentle pounding of bitter-sweet nostalgia especially here in this stanza; “sweet salt fumes linger on my lips”… such rich use of language and powerful portrayal of emotion. Unforgettable write 😊
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This is wonderful to read. Such an authentic voice. You took me there.
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So rich a write Anmol – I was wonderfully lost in your words. Wonderful words of loss and longing. You took me there too.
Anna :o]
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kaykuala
Love the twist from the expected take of a crowded beach to that of thinking of a lone loved one, HA!
Hank
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One reason I love the “winter beach” as it means I often have the beach to myself. I like the idea of collecting the ocean’s treasures and hoping to collect some for someone dear to us…
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Oh, I am totally in love with this poem! It’s all beautiful, poignant, moving, perfectly expressed – and that last line is wrenching, yet in such a tender way.
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I so enjoyed this poem, HA, and the explanation that accompanies it. I especially love the lights that ‘must have dimmed to sorrow’ and the blue ‘quenching the brown of my eyes’, Lighthouses are such lonely places, even when visited by tourists, that they are well-equipped to offer solace. My favourite lines are:
‘sweet salt fumes linger on my lips,
the sea looks deep like loss, grains
of sand end up everywhere, like
the thought of you’,
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A wonderful poem
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First of all, I really like the title. Dear, you. Your poem has a universal and mystical feeling to it. The scene captures me, your poem takes me there.
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I really love what you did here… you caught that melancholy the sea can have…. there is comfort in the emptiness, and maybe there is hope in the end as well?
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a vivid impression – your footprint left forever in such memorable lines – not least:
“i am holding reins over
the beach or i will drown,”
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Luv the haunting mood of this piece in which is sorrow and longing dwell so easily
Happy Sunday Anmol. Thanks for dropping by my Sunday Standay today
Much💟love
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I might be in love with this poem… quite possibly in lust, too (shhh! don’t tell), especially after reading your note. I love that the poem holds me by the hand and invites me to collect shells and pebbles, to love the quiet red-white lighthouse, to stay afloat with the speaker… to feel all those things that can be felt real, even if we well know that they haven’t being exactly like that (maybe).
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I was yours from the first line:
“back there, lights must have dimmed
to sorrow –
have you, too?”
To answer that query took all the colors–the pain is of an untamed overwhelming sort, nothing as gentle as “dimming.” I have had to hold the reins tight. You have captured the cliff edge of loss with these words.
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I can feel the ache…the ocean always comforts, doesn’t it? Beautiful poem!
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A pleasure from line one of your poem through last word of your notes!!
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A luscious poem, rich in sensory images, conjured up out of the poet’s imagination. Lovely, just lovely!
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How much feeling your words of loss evoked in the reader by this poem. It is so beautiful especially for those who a have lost a love and are struggling to understand why.
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beautiful use of language. the first lines already grabbed my attention from the start.
it is more than just a poem about pain, it is also a poem about hope.
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the sea looks deep like loss… yes! I can feel that!
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Ah, the letter in hope that it will be read. And convey, probably for the umpf time, make a small difference.
Nicely written and composed, not coming on real strong, for sure not a passionate plea
..
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Dear Anmol
Monday WRites 165 is live. I invite you to link in
much love…
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Sometimes it seems that the sea can affect us this way deeply. Lovely writing HA!
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What a piece! The imagery is so powerful and the emotions endorsed are so authentic that I fall short of words to congratulate you on the piece. You inspire me.
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