I'Ve Looked Into My Past Poem by Thomas Noel Smith

I have looked into my past.
And parted those dark curtains
That hid me from who I was.

Those silent days…
Passed into memory’s foggy ruins
And lie in yesterday’s dust.
I have knelt by yesterdays’ tombs
Offering remembrances, saying Aves.

But my yesterdays cannot rest in peace.
Their spirits call my mind back…
To reach for my heart
And grasp at my soul.
Their ghostly fingers claw at my mind.
I have mourned them,
But they will not grant me peace.

The secrets and thoughts I’ve kept
Hidden from my memory…
The secrets and memory of who I was…
I wished to leave in yesterday.

Old corsages lie in the road.
They pave the way for my cortege
That moves slowly into yesterday’s dying light

If I could right the wrongs
That bear my name….
But my yesterdays call to me
Reminding me
The punishment for sin
Is memory.