POETRY

Ode to Loves Lost

Poetry in ode form.

O loves! Lost to me, sailing now upon the wind. Carried away, each of you, fated not to be I once clung, a quiet, desperate sin Bound by paths I once traced upon your skins. You each let loose the complications of we However wrong each love, thy hearts all lost And removed from the horizons of me, Have now and all at once set me free! O — lovers lost, now bent upon the wind Spirited away, each a to windswept end.

O my loves! When once I clung passionately to thee Consumed and wrecked, such emotional costs Once captured, and dazed, and fortified me! Such power is too much to give away so freely. I held to you, each heart-wrenching loss One by one, loss upon loss I cried for you, wearing grief like moss A sprout here and there to absorb and accost One more moment, one more smile, one more memory I begged and pleaded for you all to just love me.

For leaving our love, I can’t begin now to thank you all. I rise in gulps of air and swallow the sun. I am blankets of green, sporophytes rising from moss I drink in the air, I release all this loss Spores lift and carry away the shadows of you Each tenderness, each kiss, each embrace of me. And to those whose kindnesses were unloving or few Your movements like rainwater cleansed me through. Goodbye to all of you who weren’t the one. I cherish your leaving, and take my place in the sun.

I think this would qualify as an Irregular Ode. Irregular Rhyme scheme (yes, I made it up): A-B-A-A-B-C-B-B-A-A B-C-B-B-C-D-C-C-B-B C-D-C-C-D-A-D-D-C-C

Thank you for reading my first shot at an Ode, a form I am not entirely familiar with, though I have studied a few of them in literature classes before. I wanted to try something new. I am primarily a free verse writer aside from a few sonnets, villanelles, and a few other forms.

If you are unfamiliar with my work — you may want to see me more in my element as well so here are two of my latest free-verse poems: Forget-Me-Not and Did You Hear?.