April 30, 2022

GloPoWriMo/NaPoWriMo Day 30: Table of Farewells

blog

Today’s prompt challenges to write a cento. This is a poem that is made up of lines taken from other poems. I wrote two poems imitating the style of the table of contents but the format is not to perfection due to time constraints. Also, the chosen format is not phone friendly, use a computer screen for maximum effect or refer to the images below each poem.

The first poem is lines from the list of 10 of the Best Poems of Farewell by Interesting Literature, an online library. According to the listing, the numbering is for which poet the line came from.

The second poem is lines from the list of Poems for Farewells and Goodbyes by Poetry Foundation. The numbering is the actual line number as found in the individual poems.

Finally, thank you, Maureen, for gathering us every year. There is no better place for me to learn and grow in poetry than Glo/NaPoWriMo. My gratitudes to everyone who read, encouraged to keep going, and indulged us with written poetry. We made it to day 30. Until 2023, may poetry find you, vex you, and rise you!

PS: And the day after writing these pieces, I woke up to the reward of being featured on the final day of GloPoWriMo 2022. I am over and all over the moon with gratitude and joy. Thank you!!!

To my readers, if you are here to enjoy poetry from this event, I will have already moved the poems from public view to undergo redrafting before finding a home for them. However, besides the currently featured poems, here is a list of my previous Na/GloPoWriMo featured poems: The Return of the Rose (2020), Allegory of Dancing (2019), Spring Wedding (2017) and Berry-Ho, Merry-Ho (2014). And adding two more poems from Na/GloPoWriMo to your reading list: The Cabbage in Your Heart and The Wilderness of Our Old Life.

POEM 1

Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part……………………………..1
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move……………………………………….2
Half broken-hearted……………………………………….……….……………….. 3
that your great going…………………………………..…..…………..…………….4
at the end of the alley of bending boughs………………..…………..…….4
till in darkening dankness …..…………………………..……….………………4
and nought to help it in this dull head. …….…………….…………………5
Those two words shut a door ………………………….………………………..6
between me and the blessed rain……………………….…………………….6
like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem.……….……………8
I have had worse partings, but none that so.………….…..…………….8
So we must say goodbye, my darling,..……..…………….………..………9
modulate the autumn in the trees……………………….…..………………9
Maybe our paths will cross….……………………………………..…………..9
when this universe folds in and makes another …….…………………9
It may be a long shot. I will take it….…………………….…………………9
as epitaph…………………………………………………………………………….10

POEM 2

First……………………………………………………………………………..….1
it is one day without you………………………………………………….……..…2
My voice says, “Nice to see you.”………….…….…………………………………5
Saying, “Goodbye! Goodbye! Nice to have seen you again.”………………….…34
I do, yet dare not say I ever meant, …………………………………………….….3
I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate……………………………………………4

When I behold my life without you in it,………………………………………….57
like finity without the infinite,………………………………………………….….60
it’s like a single point withdrawn from space, ………………………………….…62
it’s like a physicist who cannot trace………………………………………………63
that you may blind me no more………………………………………….………..18
And, follow out the happiest story—………………………………………………7
it closes with a tomb! …………………………………………………………….…8

And the day returns too soon,……………………………………………………..10
unwelcome and warning…………………………………………………………..24
into mornings alone……………………………………………………………….29
before the boat slowly pulls away into the future. Because it hurts ………………12
to say goodbye, to pull your body out of the warm water;………………………..13

Long goodbye,……………………………………………….……………………10
it will keep you busy both day and night;…………………………………………26
And still live in the by-places……………………………………………………..142
And the suburbs of thy graces;…………………………………………………….143
Thus, sweet memories come back to me………………………………………….10
bringing fresh remembrance of the past…………………………………………..11
eccentric, affectionate stories………………………………………………………21

I am glad, I am glad, that my friends don’t know what I think…………………….8
I wanted to know what it was like before we……………………………………….1
had minds to move us through our actions………………………………………….3
and tears to help us over our feelings.………………………………………………4
I am the past, and that is all………………………………………………………..10
This is the terminal, the break……………………………………………………..21
as we talk. Take the present, the future’s no one’s affair…………………………10

Copyright © 2022, Gloria D. Gonsalves. All rights reserved.

Recent Comments

Leave a Reply to Gloria. Cancel Reply