Skip to header Skip to main navigation Skip to main content Skip to footer
Home
Blue Boat Home
learning to live together sustainably

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Travels
    • Arizona
    • Battle Creek (1997)
    • Ben's Bike for Balance (2002)
    • Europe 2016
    • Grand Canyon trip, June 2008
    • Hawaii (2003)
    • Italy
    • Japan (1993)
    • Las Vegas, June 2008
    • Mexico (1990s)
    • New Mexico (2000)
    • New Zealand and Australia 2024
    • Savannah trip (2012)
    • Wheeled Migration (2004-05)
  • About the House
    • The Best Laid Plots
    • 10 lessons learned from rewiring our house
    • Electricity Consumption
    • In Sickness and in Health
    • We're moving to Nebraska!
  • Autoharp
  • Gardening
  • Gordon

Separation poem

Breadcrumb

  • Home
  • Separation poem
Profile picture for user Ben
By Ben | 11:20 AM CDT, Tue March 19, 2024

Written for a poetry class in 1997, this is a reflection on the proverb "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" and the joke attributed to Groucho Marx, "Absence makes the heart go yonder." It may go without saying that I was in a long-distance relationship at the time.

It isn't so much
                 that the heart grows fonder
	but all your sharp edges
                                 get tumbled smooth
		by miles and time.
		
It isn't so much
                 that the heart goes yonder
	but the gap you filled
                               is empty again
		and the rounded you
                                    doesn't fill it as well
			as a sharp-edged here and now.
  • Log in to post comments
poetry
Subscribe to RSS feed

All content of this site is copyright © Ben and Jessie Stallings unless otherwise indicated. Please do not use without permission.

"Blue Boat Home" is the name of a UU hymn by Peter Mayer, about how we are all travelers on the Earth. We have his permission and blessing to use the name for this site.