Adieu, My Love

Dr. James G. Piatt lives and writes in California. He taught philosophy, psychology, and engineering mathematics at Allan Hancock College and was professor of education at California State Polytechnic University and Chapman University. His poems have been published in Word Catalyst Magazine, Shadow Poetry Anthology, and Apollo's Lyre. Two of his relatives were prolific poets who wrote in the mid 1800s. One was John James Piatt, and his poem about a lover leaving on a train combined with the experience James himself had of being drafted and leaving his young bride at home inspired this lovely sad poem.

 Adieu, My Love
(inspired by leaving for service in the US Army and the poem Taking the Night Train by John James Piatt)
By James G. Piatt

Quivering words unspoken
Lingering hands touching
Smoldering love dying silently

I am slowly parting
From the lonely shadows
Stars flicker in overcast hearts

Roads faintly lighted
Endless unknown faces
Stirring in the afterglow

Melancholy footsteps
Pass silently by
Embracing sad magic

In a doorway
Memories of kisses sweet
Slowly ebbing away

Hurrying wheels
A boulevard harsh
Depot lights gleaming

Unfamiliar faces
Amid waiting crowds
Steel wheels shuffling

The iron path slithers
Into the afterglow
City fades into stillness

The gasping engine
Hurdles into the night
Roads in vagueness mounting

Oh amorphous illusion
Does her lovely soul
Understand my parting

My pale longings
Pasted upon cheerless
Lips of blue misery

Posted by Annmarie at 12/12/2009 8:44 PM
Categories: today's words
Tags: James G. Piatt good-bye love train separation
 

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