I am sorry darling
           our paths part here
a bell's loud toll
              encourages pace
              it sets me free

It's been a long day
       the suns set
                       finally
              my eyes can rest
                in light embraced

hold on to my fragments
without lament
               for the night is generous
                      quieting the rain

I am sorry darling
          we must part ways
remember eternally:
                    you are part of me
           it's til I see you
                    that goodnight I bid
my heart stays whole
and with you remains

After you left
                         I moved to a bigger house
as if I needed more space for my thoughts of you
as if I had the strength to
remember you

I measured the size of each room
and touched every corner
                of that tremendous place
                trying to guess how many moments
                how many of our early mornings
                                                       in embrace
                                                       it would take
                      to repel the shadows of emptiness
                      to turn the color and shade of my contempt

I opened each window
and closed my eyes, shutting out the
                wailing of a so tired heart
                holding the silence
                                              in all its weight

North Carolina poet, Jim Wayne Miller, on his goal in writing poetry. "Growing up in North Carolina, I was often amused, along with other natives, at tourists who fished the trout streams. The pools, so perfectly clear, had a deceptive depth. Fishermen unacquainted with them were forever stepping into what they thought was knee-deep water and going in up to their waists or even their armpits, sometimes being floated right off their feet. I try to make poems like those pools, so simple and clear their depth is deceiving. I want the writing to be so transparent that the reader forgets he is reading and is aware only that he is having an experience. He is suddenly plunged deeper than he expected and comes up shivering."

It is so easy
to fall apart within your hands
and there
I leave my soul unfolded
                            uncontrolled
to its side, I place the weight
of dreams imposed
                    upon the heart
hoping you can shape them
make sense of them

I leave half
             of all the restlessness
that makes me brave enough
             to hold you close
                                      and then let go