The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Rhymer Poem by Denis Martindale

They learnt he started long ago,
When he was twenty-six,
For he'd shared his online bio,
His profile and his pics...
When he forget his former sports
As poems were outpoured,
That blossomed into precious thoughts,
Because he found the LORD...

The decades of late nights and such
Caused him to sleep alone,
With morning chats he loved so much
To her upon the phone...
With poems penned for his girlfriend,
He'd never met or kissed,
Until, of course, that had to end,
With her so sorely missed...

But life goes on upon this Earth,
With love a constant need,
So other girls revealed their worth
And they were loved indeed...
More poems penned, emails to send,
Perchance romance to bless,
Yet not for him, nor heart to mend,
To grant some happiness...

The loneliness was hard to bear,
It shrivelled up his soul,
No more his love he chose to share,
He maintained self-control...
While girls he met were oh so nice,
He wouldn't ask one out,
Because the hoped-for Paradise
Still filled his mind with doubt...

So heart and soul and mind as well
Faced every sorrow known,
The shallow end, the pit of Hell,
Forever home alone...
With parents gone and brother, too,
The house was all he had,
Disabled now, he struggled through,
Still seeking to be glad...

Thus decades came and decades went,
A thousand poems done,
A treasure trove he could present
To strangers one-by-one...
The last kiss he could still recall,
Meant nothing to him now,
His loneliness had taken all,
Yet he survived somehow...

For there still burned the flame called hope,
The LORD had shared with him
And words of comfort so he'd cope,
When loneliness felt grim...
Feel free to pity such a man,
Old timer that he was,
Old rhymer who still served God's Man
Each day he preached Christ's Cross...

But life's a gift that God holds fast,
To take back once again
And that was when death came at last
To poet, paper, pen...
The man collapsed and left this life,
His world, his poetry...
To leave behind no child, no wife,
Just words... his legacy...


Denis Martindale, copyright, October 2013.