Edna Sweetlove

Aug 08, 2020 ⭐ View statistics (Premium feature)

Hora incognita

"I've now entered into a new relationship".
How well I still recall those words spoken to me,
Bereft of the courtesy of a personal meeting,
A cold farewell delivered by the telephone,
A blunt farewell in iambic hexamaters,
But no less crushing to my shocked heart for all that.

But now, so many years have passed, it's hard to tell
The hora incognita when discarded love
Turned into something else, first half-indifference,
Then later, much later, to unrelenting hate.
And, looking back on apparently happy years,
Memories crumble into dust and recrimination.

About This Poem

Review Request Intensity: I appreciate moderate constructive criticism

Editing Stage: Editing - polished draft

About the Author

Region, Country: London, Culture Capital of the World

Favorite Poets: Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Chaucer, Shakespeare to name but a few. And VERY IMPORTANTLY: Erich Fried, a leftwing Austrian of Jewish ancestry who fled the Nazis and became a British citizen in 1949., And, other writers (non-poets mainly): Raymond Chandler, Irvine Welsh, Anthony Burgess, Graham Greene, Charles Bukowski, John le Carré, Anthony Horowitz, Mick Herron, Margaret Attwood, Edna O'Brian, Maeve Binchy., Writers who I find vastly over-rated: TS Eliot, Virgina Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Phil Larkin, E.A. Poe, A. Ginsburg, Longfellow, Gerald Manley Hopkins (actually I LOATHE Hopkins more than damson-dappled words can say).

Comments

Candlewitch

5 years 2 months ago

hello,

you portray the death of a long term relationship incredibly well...the pain is palpable! well done!

always, Cat

Lavender

5 years 2 months ago

Hora Incognita

Hello, Edna,
Very cold, painful and bitter - very perfect poetry for such an experience. Great question: at what hour, at what point does it all turn and become apparent as something other than love? That seems to be the monumental moment.
Thank you,
L

Geezer

5 years 2 months ago

I have been...

on both ends of this emotional roller-coaster. It doesn't get any better when you have delivered the news yourself. Oh yeah, in the beginning, you feel relieved that you have made the break, but years later, you wonder; especially after you have endured the same. [Maybe even at the hands of said new love]. Excellent job of pulling the reader in and keeping their attention. I really liked the the lines: "And looking back on apparently happy years
. Memories crumble into dust and recrimination"
It seems that we are always the last to know, huh? ~ Geez.
.

Breakinglogic

5 years 2 months ago

Edna,

Your title is really engaging. I also think your final line is strong. I have seen this play out more than once and I feel sad every time.

Edna Sweetlove

5 years 2 months ago

Thank you all...

...for your kind comments.
.

Edna Sweetlove

5 years 2 months ago

You will be interested to know...

...that I just discovered that the person who ditched me many years ago died a few weeks ago.
So the hatred was pointless.

Lavender

5 years 2 months ago

Pointless

Ah, Edna,
Except in great poetry, I cannot think of another place where hatred has any point at all.
L

Geezer

5 years 2 months ago

Hatred...

is pointless in any case. But, I understand that it happens regardless. So, now that the other person has departed, you have peace? I kind of doubt it, now you're probably pissed that you didn't get to tell them how pissed you are. I have been fortunate, in that the ones that I have dumped have already gone on ahead. I sure hope that if there is in fact an afterlife, that I don't have to meet up with them, it might be kind of awkward. ~ Geez