Stranger whose silhouette I now see
whose footsteps I first heard over the hill
whose dark eyes I have daringly now just met
I have, without thinking, given you a name
I have given you a history and place in the world
I have given you dreams—I have dreamed them for you
And now I brush briefly against you and now we pass
into each other’s goodnight and already I miss you
sweet stranger, goodbye and live beautifully—
fade gently from my thoughts with the same grace
that first brought you by.
Author’s Notes:
I was really struggling to get a poem put together for this week and was getting frustrated, so I took a break, and then came back and found this one waiting for me. It only took about 15 minutes after that. Funny how that works.
Hmm…what are my thoughts? I like the way using the word ‘now’ a lot in the first stanza sort of flattens the poem out and makes it seem like it is physically unfolding moment-by-moment, and then how the second stanza switches completely
to ‘have’ which takes it out of that physical time into a kind of mental time, where things develop very rapidly. And then the third stanza ties those two worlds together.
Favorite Line:
And now I brush briefly against you and now we pass
Most Revised Line:
fade gently from thought with the same grace
that first brought you by.