loss
Here's a response to Blym's post. I thought I'd copy my response to his post here, since it contains issues that're pertinent to me atm, albeit in a cryptic way. Haha. (But go read his post, it's interesting; besides, the 'poem' below will make (more) sense only after reading his post.)
Next stop: Somewhere ahead.
Press the bell!
Really, why? We're getting off here?
I don't know.
Do you?
Newton's Law of Gravitation:
people, fundamentally particles, move around in random Brownian motion;
meet for an instant, then spiral off in tangents.
Yet sometimes gravitational force keeps them together in clusters
that may disperse gradually
or collapse upon themselves
fears, tears,
pain and desire.
hopes, despondency,
love and loneliness --
conditions of being human.
Such is life.
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Break, Break, Break
by Lord Alfred Tennyson
Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
O, well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O, well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
Break, break, break,
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.
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The beauty of this poem lies in how this sense of loss is so applicable to almost everything, how it can strike a chord in most people. Just take the last 2 lines: "But the tender grace of a day that is dead /Will never come back to me." It can stand for so many things. For one, it can be taken literally, to lament the loss of a really memorable time that can never be relived again. Or it can be taken to lament the loss of a loved one, like how Lord Tennyson wrote it to mean for him. Or it can mean the loss of friendship, etc.
We will surely have experienced some sort of loss at one stage in life or another. It's a common saying that "you never realise the value of something until you've lost it" -- a sad truth of life. Many things are so hard to gain, yet so easily lost: love, trust, hope, ideals, regard, respect, friendship, confidence, innocence. To name a few, or rather, the ones that matter more to me. Loss is inevitable; there's always a price to pay, to gain something. At the end of it I guess it just boils down to knowing what matters most to us.
Ah well. I feel like I've lost something as my schooldays here draw to a close. Just like how I felt a sense of loss when I left primary school.
And I can't help but smile, and sigh, as I look back over my shoulders.