07-20-2026, 11:21 AM
Loss
I’ve forgotten most of it | First-person declarative statement or 'admission' is engaging.
except how I wanted you,
the reader, to feel when the shadow fell | Addressing the reader further engages
over my shoulder, to know my sudden startle | Nice use of assonance and 'd' and 't' sounds to mark the suddenness
mistaking the change in light she might have made | Are you mistaking a shadow from the sun for her shadow over your shoulder?
for maybe a cloud’s passing or nothing
more than a lapse in the workings
of my hands as I tend the flowers. | Domestic and natural imagery is wonderfully simple yet vivid.
This is a beautiful poem on the theme of loss in everyday and domestic moments, that often compound the most grief and anguish. The images of the quiet changes in the atmosphere caused by the 'she' seeing a cloud in the sky or noticing you pausing tending the flowers, set against the absence of those changes being caused by her, are particularly striking to me and stand out as original and evocative.
I was a little unsure if you mistook a change in the natural light for her shadow falling over your shoulder - that may be my miscomprehension, though.
Thank you for posting such a beautiful poem that I am very happy to have read.
I’ve forgotten most of it | First-person declarative statement or 'admission' is engaging.
except how I wanted you,
the reader, to feel when the shadow fell | Addressing the reader further engages
over my shoulder, to know my sudden startle | Nice use of assonance and 'd' and 't' sounds to mark the suddenness
mistaking the change in light she might have made | Are you mistaking a shadow from the sun for her shadow over your shoulder?
for maybe a cloud’s passing or nothing
more than a lapse in the workings
of my hands as I tend the flowers. | Domestic and natural imagery is wonderfully simple yet vivid.
This is a beautiful poem on the theme of loss in everyday and domestic moments, that often compound the most grief and anguish. The images of the quiet changes in the atmosphere caused by the 'she' seeing a cloud in the sky or noticing you pausing tending the flowers, set against the absence of those changes being caused by her, are particularly striking to me and stand out as original and evocative.
I was a little unsure if you mistook a change in the natural light for her shadow falling over your shoulder - that may be my miscomprehension, though.
Thank you for posting such a beautiful poem that I am very happy to have read.