Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OBLIVION OF DEATH, by JUAN HOLGUIN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OBLIVION OF DEATH, by                    
First Line: Once I knew you could not be forgotten
Last Line: Or to smile with my pain?
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


Once I knew you could not be forgotten.
Once I saw by night
With the light from your eyes;
But then it was never night:
Nor could I imagine time with you gone,
Gone that I could not still see you
(For I prided a mind of memories,
Believed a spirit could keep forever
You, vaporous reality, if night came.)

And now when I cannot find even
Ashes of the one once you;
Even long-gone mementoes,
Pressed flowers, things time-stained,
Tear-wrinkled words written
In the dusk,
O let me cry at even;
Or let me laugh at pain.
Let me smile at pain.

But even now it is evening,
And now I need those stars
In my dark,
Those flashes in the misty sky;
And if you have also gone,
Gone so completely even to the eye,
Why can I not have the reminiscence in my heart
To cry at evening
Or to smile with my pain?





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