Memories Of My Shadow

by Tom Swart   Jun 9, 2005


Memories of My Shadow

By Tom Swart

Thoughts From Chautauqua Ave
Stumpwood NY (formally Lakewood NY)

The dawn has brought the morning
And the warmth of a new day.
As the dew glistens and quivers
I sense a strange new vibration.

The early mist bathes me as the
Moments of my life come remembered.
Like jewels in the sun they dance around me,
And bring my old roots to laughter.

So many years I have stood here,
Your old soldier against time.
So many storms I have weathered,
In my clinging to this earth.

I hear the echos of my youth,
When you too were young.
When first we felt the spring,
So many years ago.

I felt the sorrows as you passed,
With your own sad memories,
I felt too the joys,
As your children were born.

They would play around me
As they passed through childhood.
They would lean against me,
As first kisses brought them to a new age.

But now the time has come
Where you will bare witness to this day.
A day when there were no legions
No armies to protect me.

The moment draws closer now.
The weapons of progress come ready.
The sharp tongues sting me,
They tear at my flesh, and my core.

The tools scream and spit,
And rip my life from me.
Their contempt consumes me
As my weakened shadow grows smaller.

I have no defense, no armor.
I have nothing that can bend
These harpoons, these barbs
That cut, slash and burn.

As I bleed with my own sadness.
I hear other distant cries
The ground trembles softly
As my old friends meet their end.

They too have felt the steel,
as progress bares down against them.
They too have felt the sting
As they fall prey to a thousand cuts.

The air becomes consumed,
Loud snaps and cracks fill our ears,
As the energy of a hundred trips
Around the sun is released.

Through these cries my youth comes to me,
as does the breath of a 100 springs,
The showers of a 100 summers, and
The chorus of a thousand doves.

But now there is only silence and dust.
The wind no longer dances with me.
The sun can not find me.
My breath no longer fills your lungs.

There are no songs from my canopy,
No more births upon my branches,
No more trepid first flights ,
No more colors for your fall.

Will you ever return to this spot
Where in your youth you
Played and chipped at my skin,
Where the initials of your love grew old.

Will you be more cautious
With the following generations.
Will you be more thoughtful
As you plant the next seed.

Will you miss me,
As this new seed grows?
will you long for me,
and cry out for my old shadow?

Will you miss my beauty.
Will you will miss the trees.
Will you miss the moment
When you could have said no.

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Latest Comments

  • 15 years ago

    by Tom Swart

    I'm not sure where the question marks came from but they are gone as is the last ray of this days setting sun... couldn't resist. Thanks for your comments and the critique.

  • 15 years ago

    by Jennifer RIP Lesthat Hayden

    Third stanza, last line, what's with the two question marks? Might want to edit that.

    Sixth to last stanza, first line, you have one extra space before the period.

    Beside those two corrections I have but one more. I felt you used too many comas. In some areas there should have been a period completing a thought rather than a coma making a run on sentence. Other than that, perfect.

    This was a great poem. I loved the words you used and the description was just beautiful. It started out slow and the power increased and poem became violent and then the end was the calm of the storm...Just peaceful as if it never happened. The only trace being the memory.

    Five.

  • 17 years ago

    by Celrien Abi

    Heya Tom, i really enjoyed read this peom and i'm looking forward to reading more of your work.

  • 17 years ago

    by myxlittlexcut

    Thank you so much for recomending this poem to me! I loved it. I felt emotion throughout reading it, and the ending was so powerful, my goodness it was a good poem. I think that not matter who you are, after reading this poem you will find a way to conect to it. Well done!

  • 17 years ago

    by Chelsey

    This was a sad, but very wonderfully written, touching poem. You are an excellent writer, and thanks dearly for the comment on mine. It means alot.

    Once again, touching and great poem.
    I hope I could write this good someday. :]

    Chelsey