Finis
I was there.
Weeks of waiting, watching,
wondering how you held on,
how you defied
the inevitable.
You clung to life,
her tenuous tendrils
all that kept you here.
I’ve watched the change
death brings
when so slow—
the fragile, fading
waning of vigor.
A life unnoticed—
when not a mark is made
or sound is heard,
you die alone.
But I was there.
This morning,
you let go
and fluttered to the ground
among so many others,
and I was there.
Photo Credit: Mayang.com
Linked to dVerse Poetics where the theme today is Calendars and anything the passage of time might conjure up for you. I hope you’ll stop by with a poem, or a poetry fix. I’m your hostess today.
I’m pleased to announce that print copies of Jacaranda Rain, Collected Poems, 2012 are now available through Amazon.com and are offered through all of their distribution sources. There are revisions and additions in this copy.
Cover Art: V. Slotto
Photo: D. Slotto
Victoria C. Slotto, Author 
Magnificent. The visual painting here is brilliant.
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Oh. I wish I had words for how this made me feel. Oh.
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The leaf lesson
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the way you unite with the experience is stunning. tender and wise. I love this.
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I am glad to see your aside went with how I read your write. I felt reassured to still be present in reality. I have spent the last breath at several bedsides and fortunately for me all peaceful and quieter than a last leaf falling. Beautiful truthful metaphor. Perfect timing, just when fall says goodbye.
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a very poignant piece. beautiful!
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i wish there is always someone who says i was there, to say goodbye..
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“Witnessing” is important and this poem – beautifully written -points up that importance for both witness and witnessed. I love it … This would be a good one to share. Hugs! and hope the elbow is on the mend.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and David.
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oh this is beautiful. Have you read Robert Frost October? Your poem brought it to my mind
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“I was there”…a great blessing to share the final moments with a loved one. Beautiful poem!
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Life and death expressed in such a beautiful way. This piece really spoke to me.
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Tender and beautiful.
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Beautifully expressed metaphor. I don’t think it is realised how many people have no one, live unloved by anyone and die alone. The last will be first in the Kingdom and all praise to the religious orders who care for and give comfort to the dying.
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I too have been watching a particular tree and particular clinging leaves…I think it is a privilege to be there in the moment, even though it went unnoticed by many it was one part of a magnificent growing beautiful spring beauty that leads the way for new growth, new life …exceptional, Victoria.
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This is so tender and heart touching … loved it !!!
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leaves ~ like lives flutter fall and become one with the earth again – a beautifully written and sad piece Victoria.
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Sacred poem, written almost like by wind…whispering, knowing all secrets, witnessed many lives, never unnoticed, always having the purpose, the wisdom of it’s own…Thanks for sharing, Victoria
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Beautifully expressed Victoria. There are so many that die alone (or lonely) and it is important that we are there to acknowledge existence.
Anna
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Bearing witness to these things is so important — meaningful to the person in transition and the witness–and an act of immeasurable kindness and goodness. This comes through in the poem. k.
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A beautiful and tender poem, Victoria. To be there when someone passes is indeed difficult but how wonderful for them to know someone was there to say goodbye.
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Wonder if I can become THAT leaf – so loved by you – when it’s my time. XO, Victoria. I love having a chance to be here today and don’t you dare show up on my blog today. I love feeling you and I give each other this freedom!
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A splendidly fragile yet rich poem. Like a dried leaf, I reckon.
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I really like this poem, Victoria! Your words make the act of dying seem almost peaceful despite the hints of loneliness and previous pain.
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Dying-time has its own calendar–surely not paced the way any of us would have it — too soon or too slow. How long will it be before that leaf finally falls? We know it will, but have no idea when. Fine write, Victoria —
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And they were glad that you were there.
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There is something so quiet about watching the last moments of somebody else’s life slip away. It is so strange, when the movement from life to death of someone you love so much is the most life-changing event you can experience. I will never forget it – and it is a huge honour to be there at that time. You wrote this so well.
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When the last leaf falls, we begin to fixate on the blossoms to come, le being at a loved one’s funeral, knowing that in a few months another grandchild will take their place, as the great wheel continues to turn. Very touching gentle profound piece.
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Reblogged this on booknvolume and commented:
This is remarkably lovely!
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OH I LOVE THIS !! What a gorgeously symbolic verse. …..sigh….. lovely lovely!
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Witnessing can be a blessing for both sides.
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This is so powerful, Victoria.
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This is a great poem of death… so lightly and sensitively written with observant eyes…
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whew….quite emotional piece…made me think of death well beyond a tree…but trees too are sacred…and i am glad you were there to be the witness to its letting go…and captured it…marking time….
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this is beautifullly sensitively written victoria… a wonderful prompt as well… and it’s good to pause every once and a while and think about the milestones in life and what comes when it comes..
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A very tender write. There are many lives which fade unnoticed. Beautiful metaphor and well-penned. 🙂
-HA
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Victoria, I really liked this poem. I thought it was really about a person passing until the end when I realized it wasa leaf, no less poignant, but I loved the twist. >KB
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Victoria, you have captured the dying process and what it is like to watch the progression and then the eventual letting go of life….. The ‘fluttering to the ground among so many others’ is a strong image….which makes me think of both people and all of nature.
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I’ve been watching the tree outside the window where I meditate. One leaf, glorious in the height of autumn caught my attention and I kept an eye on it until it dropped. For me, this is a metaphor. In my “past life,” I was in an religious order that watched with the dying 24/7. So often, the person had no one. So many lives go unnoticed. I think of this often when looking at all the leaves on a tree, or a field of sunflowers. And so it is.
Please join us over at dVerse…only 30 minutes or so till the doors are open and the company and poetry is the best.
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I was going to say ‘metaphor’ and scrolled down to comment and here you are saying what I thought. Another thought popped through, Is the new growth of a new leaf in Spring like re-incarnation I wonder. I have read many deep and beautiful pieces like yours on this prompt. I guess it is the saddest and most painful things that we remember most. I have not managed to write anything yet.
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