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Farewell to Things
By Talisker
11 March 2007
On having to sell (for survival) the trinkets & baubles of better times.  Especially my bloody Omega Seamaster watch!

Good riddance!

Life owed me nothing
and she has paid in full.
 

These trinkets which I feigned to own,
now returned to rightful hands,
have left me closer to myself,
more naked, less ashamed.
 

The hollowness of things,
the self-pettifoggery of acquisitiveness,
the meaninglessness of possessions;
life’s lessons, laid plain before me,
yet overlooked in the maddening struggle,
to have, to hold, to be what I cannot.
 

So now I stand, unencumbered,
to travel light, this winding road.
Let me take from here what I brought;
a body, a mind, a scream for existence.
 

Oli 11/03/07

Reviews

Written by Phil (6730 comments posted) 11th March 2007
Sorry to hear you're on your uppers Oli. 
 
Pettifoggery - great word. (had to look it up mind) 
 
Thought the contrasts worked very well. There's some bitterness at the beginning, but the first parts read as if you sound glad to be moving away from materialism. (Always relative) The last line has real impact and rises above all the rest - sort of makes your worries meaningless. 
 
Am I waffling? 
 
Thought this was very good. 
 
Phil. 
 
Farewell to things
Written by Josie (2785 comments posted) 11th March 2007
Oli, on one hand I feel sorry that you have had to let things go, and on the other hand I feel I should also. We accumulate so many things in life and hang on to things for sentimental reasons. I come from an age when I feel guilty for getting rid of things which still have use in them. Then I remember that we come into this world with nothing and 'tis true that we cannot take it with us. Your poem, sad as it is to me, but I remember the time when I filled the Shelter Shop window with my mother's china, felt guilty about it, and then can tell you that I haven't really missed it. (Confession time). How well expressed you have put your words, and I love also the word "pettifoggery".

Written by Bottleblondesurfer (3362 comments posted) 12th March 2007
I suppose that is what makes a writer a writer. I know we have been in a similar situation in the past and I must own up that the last thing I thought of doing was using it as a source of writing. You're a true instinctive writer. [I'm not sure that's a compliment,though]. 
cheers 
J

Written by gutterkitty (362 comments posted) 12th March 2007
Not your best work. I liked the simplicity of the first two stanzas, but the third is too full of lengthy words which can get in the way of the meaning. The last line seemed dramatic and out of place with the rest of the poem. Interesting thoughts, though.

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