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Most moments in our lives pass unnoticed, without remark or consciousness. Then, there are those that mean something, or that we choose to mean something,    that become a placeholder for our lives, to add meaning, understanding, passage     a demarcation that bestows significance My daughter graduated, under rainy skies and cool breezes. The white tents in the grass flapped empty and lonely like a cancelled wedding We sat in a loud gymnasium rather than in the grass quad surrounded by trees I was there with a thousand other proud parents; I circled her name in the program.  I waited for the moment when it was to be called; being        slightly afraid I'd miss it And I whistled and yelled, but I don't think quite enough.  I didn't seem to mark the moment. It was a moment, and I knew it, expected it, wanted it to be.    so badly.   Bittersweet.  I like that word, it explains life so well. I like the idea of bittersweet and I wanted to have it envelope me that day. I tried to hold on to it.   Like a good dream that comes too late in the morning and wont be prolonged quite far enough I wanted to hold on, to understand what it meant.  I knew it meant so much,    or, at least, I wanted it too. I held on to understand what this meant to her. I held on to remember my own graduation and the dream I then only fainty realized I had just experienced in my four years of college I held on because I know her next steps take her further away. I held on to feel what she felt in the mixture of joy, relief, sadness, confusion;    all that goes with parting from friends who alone know the exerience you shared. I held on to make sense of my life.  Making sense of moments makes them meaningful.   I want life to be meaningful I wish I would have written something that evening.  In the full emotion of the day. I thought about it. And now, like that dream, it is fading into morning light.  I can't remember all that was, or seemed to be, profound and important as I watched my daughter those two days.   I want it to mean something enduring, symbolic and permanent.   I want my life to be important, to reflect a famous quote from someone, to be in granite.   Not so everyone will know it mattered, just so that I will.
0
Jun 4, 2013
Jun 4, 2013 at 1:50 AM UTC
A Moment
Most moments in our lives pass unnoticed, without remark or consciousness. Then, there are those that mean something, or that we choose to mean something,    that become a placeholder for our lives, to add meaning, understanding, passage     a demarcation that bestows significance My daughter graduated, under rainy skies and cool breezes. The white tents in the grass flapped empty and lonely like a cancelled wedding We sat in a loud gymnasium rather than in the grass quad surrounded by trees I was there with a thousand other proud parents; I circled her name in the program.  I waited for the moment when it was to be called; being        slightly afraid I'd miss it And I whistled and yelled, but I don't think quite enough.  I didn't seem to mark the moment. It was a moment, and I knew it, expected it, wanted it to be.    so badly.   Bittersweet.  I like that word, it explains life so well. I like the idea of bittersweet and I wanted to have it envelope me that day. I tried to hold on to it.   Like a good dream that comes too late in the morning and wont be prolonged quite far enough I wanted to hold on, to understand what it meant.  I knew it meant so much,    or, at least, I wanted it too. I held on to understand what this meant to her. I held on to remember my own graduation and the dream I then only fainty realized I had just experienced in my four years of college I held on because I know her next steps take her further away. I held on to feel what she felt in the mixture of joy, relief, sadness, confusion;    all that goes with parting from friends who alone know the exerience you shared. I held on to make sense of my life.  Making sense of moments makes them meaningful.   I want life to be meaningful I wish I would have written something that evening.  In the full emotion of the day. I thought about it. And now, like that dream, it is fading into morning light.  I can't remember all that was, or seemed to be, profound and important as I watched my daughter those two days.   I want it to mean something enduring, symbolic and permanent.   I want my life to be important, to reflect a famous quote from someone, to be in granite.   Not so everyone will know it mattered, just so that I will.
russell-william-johnson
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Jun 4, 2013
Jun 4, 2013 at 1:50 AM UTC
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