The death knell sounds and echoes round
the confines of the burial ground
The tolling bell seems to foretell.
Life will become a lonely hell.
My love is gone, she’s travelled on,
her race is run and she has won.
No longer bound by gravity
she’s earned her wings and she is free.
By sadness I am overcome.
I am struck dumb, completely numb.
I cannot cry although I try.
The wellspring of my tears run dry
The mourners murmur quietly
but no one comes to comfort me.
This does not come as a surprise.
They do not seem to realise
The love I bore for her was true.
We were a partnership we two,
which lasted over thirty years.
I wonder why nobody dares
To offer me their sympathy
a little sensitivity.
But they still show they disapprove.
They do not understand that love.
Between two women is as real
as the emotions which they feel.
But then her mother chooses to
do what the others dare not do.
She comes to me and takes my hand
and says my dear I understand
You loved just her as much as I
it is appropriate to cry.
The courage which she chose to show
allowed my pent up tears to flow
When she acknowledged publicly
what her daughter had been to me.
22-May-08
http: // blog.myspace.com/poeticpiers
Oh! my....you made my heart cry....lovely poem...you brought me into the flow! ! ! Like a childs in a knights armor...
This poem reminds me of Lord Tennyson's famous poem ‘Home they brought her warrior dead’…A fitting acknowledgement opens out the barrel of sorrow here. A loss big and sad equally to both… ‘Her race is run and she has won’…most touching and painful this line, Ivor…
very sad and beautiful poem....this isn't based on personal experience is it. I saw that it says 'the love between two women'....either way, very sad, im sorry if this is about a personal loss
Amazingly painful to read. The scene remains fixed in the reader's mind. Thanks for writing this one.
A love so strong, the very earth would bounce...lovely piece Ivor...you are the master when it comes to writing true unconditional themes. Best wishes my friend Jon
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
A very beautiful description of true love. Another moving poem. Thank you Ivor. Best wishes, John.