Crystalline light
refracts before tired eyes
Do I know this place?
So strange to not
trust familiarity
It may be illusory
cosmetic, or real
All the same now
I do not know
Words used to flow
like rivers from my lips
Loquacious, they called me
Lyrical at times
But now words are stilled
stopped up
like a dam
Too often lost
Captured in this dark forest
in the depths of a night
even while the sun
filters its light upon me
I do not see
So gradual
this steep, inexorable decline
When I remember
all I have lost
this bids me cry
I do not feel
Age is a monster
hiding in the cupboard
dusty with moths
like my mind
with memories out of reach
Oh Death!
Will I recognize your embrace
the moment that you visit
or will your face
be yet another stranger to me know?
I do not remember
Dear God
I cannot recall………
(c) Helen Valentina 2013, All Rights Reserved
helenvalentina 
I had a comment… But I forgot… 😉
LOL. 🙂
once again I am captured by your use of words. bravo :]]
Thank you so much, that is so kind! 🙂
well no problemo, i’ve been lacking inspiration lately but i’m finally getting a grip on my writing and your poetry is definitely a good source of inspiration.
You have a way of making things fluid with beautiful word choices. I really enjoy reading your prose.
Thank you so much, that is so kind! 🙂
Gorgeous as always! Epilepsy has destroyed my memory and reduced my cognitive functioning I feel that I am losing myself, that I am not even alive most of the time. When I write its the only time I can connect and articulate and though the fog doesn’t really clear somehow the words still get through.Those times when I can’t write I feel like I lose touch entirely. I used to think my absorption in writing was disconnecting me from reality so I stopped writing for years but I end up more disconnected and more emotionally constipated than ever. Writing is like breathing, I might be asthmatic but damn it I still have to breath.I enjoy your work so much, you are so talented!
Thank you so much, that is so appreciated! I’m sorry to hear you struggle with memory issues via epilipsy. The poem was inspired by reading a woman’s story about seeing her mother with dementia and knowing that is genetically likely to be in her future too..was a heartbreaking story…such a terrible thing to lose memories, or at least the ones you want to keep. 🙂
It is incredibly scary and I know that I do not suffer memory loss to the same degree, I can’t imagine how tough it would be. My grandmother had dementia and she was actually happier and much kinder after her life had been so difficult that I guess her memories had acted as a sort of pollution. I can’t imagine what she must have been through that dementia was a relief for her.
Wow, yes, I agree…it says volumes that loss of memory of that type would be a relief…I feel for her.
I know so little about her past and what I do is terrifying. My mom once got in touch with my grandmother’s niece wanting to learn more about her mother’s past and the woman became absolutely hysterical, inconsolable even the mom didn’t really ask anything invasive. I only know that my grandmother lived with her sister for a time and that that sister had two children (one from rape, the other just illegitimate), her sister locked one child up in a room (not the child from rape) and kept it there that must have been the girl. I believe my grandmother reported it and the child was taken away. My grandmother did not like her sister it was a very vicious hatred too.
My god…that is terrible. It sounds like some of the issues you have been dealing with are generational in some form. Wow. You have my sympathy, of course..not sure what else I can say, but know you have that. 🙂
Thanks! I didn’t get the best genetics to work with but I am trying!
I know, I only meant the patterns of behaviour that can come through families sometimes and how they can affect people. I think you are doing very, very well under the circumstances. 🙂
Thank you so much it means a lot =) I am happy to report my mom is doing much better now too she has really come a long way.