9/27/11

A Recollection
By Vanessa Chastain Rivas


Although it was not what either of us expected

When we met again that day,

Or when times before some stroke of fate

Had caused our paths to cross,

Still, again, again, you emerged,

A quiet presence

In my life,

That again, again reminded me

Of treasures I had lost



And somehow it came to be

That you carried a recollection

Of a girl no longer here,

The last record to remain

Of the person she once had been



For bringing to light

This collection of kindness

And anguish that in your eyes

Had only amounted to goodness,

Thank you for illuminating the

Path that I have struggled long

To follow



My world is now unrecognizable

With you in it

Gone is the endless

Rumination and the expectation that all will

Inevitably turn for the worst

It is only fitting that you would

Have been the first to show me

Where to seek happiness



And now I need not look

To find beauty in every scene:

Those colors that fill the sky,

Those grasses and shining leaves

Promise inspiration for the

Words that I will write

In the near future,

Their movements providing rhythm

To the tunes that I could sing



Because of you, I know what love is

It is a feeling that inspires us

To think the world

Of another human being,

Of all other human beings,

Regardless of whom they appear to be

Or what they actually do



It makes every action of theirs seem

More magical and

Leaves us with emotions of

Euphoria and sadness

Anger and gentle happiness...

Yet we want to experience it all



For the richness of our passions

Will never leave us

Bored



What sort of life would it have been

If you had died without experiencing

Heartbreak? Close deaths?

Apprehension? Imagine how repetitive

Those many years would have been



So blissful, but

So few lessons learned



Accept the pain

For what it is and embrace it

We can always count on returning

To that central location

Which holds us together



Our mutual concern

And a desire to see the world

Return to peace


- - -
I am a nineteen-year-old student at New College of Florida. I finished my first poetry collection in June 2010 and began my second poetry collection a few months later. My experimental essay "Perfectionist" is forthcoming in Hippocampus Magazine, due for release in October 2011.