The Tides (a poem)

Learning to embrace beginnings AND endings

Though it frightens us to say it,
The hardiest love will end someday.
I know it tastes like a forever.
A time will come, it won’t be there,
won’t feel the same.

A time will come you’ll mourn and grieve
And question what you once believed;
And that, itself will prove ephemeral,
No matter how eternal — how infernal —
that pain seems.

The flower wilts. The seasons pass.
The flower blooms though, while it lasts.
And while it lasts, it brings such rapture
That it makes any ending worth it,
In our hearts!

Embark in the doomed voyages;
Walk the trail, take in the sights —
For it’s not how it ends that matters
(Or that it will end, for the matter)
But that it starts.

It’s pages in a book. It’s stories,
Moments lived, shared pains and glories
That shape our hearts, define our essence.
We tap into life’s phosphorescence
When we interlace.

Treasure each day. Treasure each hour.
Treasure and cherish one another.
Love is our best self, manifesting —
And worth each second as it bursts
And as it fades.

NOTE: This poem was inspired by Andrea Gibson’s “How It Ends”
— a spoken-word piece that I could listen to again and again forever.