Neon music sign (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Over the years it seems my life
Has gradually, slowly come to be
An absence of such pure delight
Or even mournful melody
When I was young I lived the age
When music held such mastery
And all the hours idly spent
In music helped creating me
I learned to sing such perfect notes
Such beauty overcoming me
The lyrics whirling, like my soul
Could forge my way so peacefully
But now in age I seem to find
That silence can surround a home
I do not play my favourite songs
I do not sing, though all alone
My new life here is so prescribed
I do not know the how or why
I first chose to withdraw, deny
The dreams and songs I once lived by
Now if I ever sing a note
It ricochets throughout these halls
I sound just like lamenting ghosts
Whose memories don’t belong at all
I can’t recall the day or hour
When inward some decision made
Led to this strange forgetfulness
And silenced my young life’s parade
So music-less I pass my time
And barely miss the melody
My youthful self would see a crime
In what my age has done to me
It would be just the veil of life
Forgetting where I once belonged
And so in silence pass my days
When once I lived inside a song
(c) Helen Valentina 2013, All Rights Reserved
helenvalentina 
So sad, but so beautiful. xxxx 🙂
Thanks Skye!! 🙂 🙂
So much of this I echo!
Have you found the same thing? It occurred to me the other day I used to always be singing round the house, playing music, even playing CDs while I lazed in the bath…but now, rarely if ever to either listening to or making music…not sure why… 🙂
I can relate but wish you weren’t in that place. Hope you find your songs once more!!
Thank you!! 🙂 🙂
I completely understand
Thanks Paul! 🙂 🙂
Singing is music to the soul, Helen.
The more sentimental – the better! 🙂 Never stop.
I don’t consciously stop, I just don’t seem to look to music much these days, or sing much for that matter – not sure why, hence the poem! 🙂
I know what you are saying. I love music. I have to now force myself to put on a CD so I can sing or dance like no-one’s watching around the house. A beautiful write Helen and a reminder that we shouldn’t let the music within us go.
I’m fascinated to see it is a common phenomenon, I’d thought I was odd, but it seems more normal than I thought, LOL! Yes, we must try not to let the music die! 🙂 🙂
Maybe it’s an age thing? :-)…. 😦
Could be… and as you put it.. 🙂 … 😦
I too understand, but have forced myself to enjoy music whenever possible. I write to music and love it. (writing and the music). Your poem really described how the passing of time takes some things we used to enjoy and displaces them with other concerns.
So true, I think it is displacement/replacement, rather than anything else. Thanks for commenting!! 🙂 🙂
This is so sad Helen I would have loved to hear you sing,
Thank you!! 🙂 🙂
I hope you dont mind me pointing this out :S the second line just felt a bit strange with the use of ‘gradually’ and ‘slowly’meaning the same thing and almost diminishing each other in my opinion. I hope you wont mind me pointing that out :S.
I love this section;
‘I can’t recall the day or hour
When inward some decision made
Led to this strange forgetfulness
And silenced my young life’s parade’
The story you tell is a sad one and you tell it so well, i hope that it is not true of your life.
Thank you – I put in both gradually and slowly to give a sense of incremental decline, but it’s interesting to hear that it may read to diminish rather than emphasise. The story is actually true of my life – it is a strange phenomenon I realised and wondered about and then many others commenting have experienced the same thin…it is sad if aging takes away the music….
I personally think a loss takes it away, that is the case for me anyway. I’m slowly bringing music back into my life 🙂