44 Comments
User's avatar
Wifa Hasan (elle/son)'s avatar

A profoundly touching and deeply moving elegy. To hold that final gaze and keep a bond unbroken across the veil requires immense strength. It is also a graceful and heartbreaking tribute — to a love that transcends even time and fading light.

'When the night deepens and the blue moon rises, your love remains the constant star'.

It's been a while indeed. So thanks kindly my dear, this delicate piece has cured my longing for your pen strokes. Sweet dreams. 🫂🤍

rena's avatar

Thank you so much my dear friend Wifa 🤍 🫂

Adrião Pereira da Cunha's avatar

The poem feels like someone holding the last moments of a life with both hands, refusing to let anything slip away too quickly. There’s a tenderness in the way each detail is remembered, as if naming them might keep the person close for just a little longer. What struck me most is how physical the grief is — the soft hair, the relaxed hand, the fading warmth. It’s love trying to stay present even as the world is shifting into absence. The poem moves gently, almost like a vigil kept in whispers. And the promise of “never goodbye” doesn’t feel dramatic; it feels like devotion that has nowhere else to go. The final lines carry a quiet ache, a kind of love that lingers after everything else has gone still. By the end, you feel the weight of someone refusing to look away, even in the last light.

rena's avatar

Thank you 🌻

Sean Griobhtha's avatar

Your poetry melts me

rena's avatar

Aww thank you, Sean 🌻 sweet words

Simone Senisin's avatar

Hi Rena, here l am scrolling through Substack on a grey day in front of the fire 💖, and come across this beautiful song. I remember 🙏🏼💖. Thank you. (PS: see how l wrote song and not poem … just could be a song 💖)

rena's avatar

Thank you so much, Simone 🌻

Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

Death is the last penultimate moment of a life. To die in the hands of one’s beloved - what a gift that would be. Soon, my love, soon. So beautiful this is.

rena's avatar

Thank you so much, Celi, for the kind words 🌻 🤍

Amanda Royal's avatar

There are so many times and ways we say goodbye to those we love, whether it's just for a night's sleep or forever, and these few beautiful words seem to capture them all. They shifted for me each time I came back to read again.

rena's avatar

Oh Amanda 🌻 love your observations, thank you 🤍

Jaap Stijl's avatar

I tried to comment and got a message that only paid subscribers can comment and then well, it seems in hindsight like a glitch. Lovely poem in any case.

rena's avatar

It is a glitch. I don't do paid subscriptions. I'm sorry I can't read your comment. I miss your comments 🌻

Jim Carmichael's avatar

Simply beautiful.

rena's avatar

Thank you, Jim 🌻

Judith L Hubbard's avatar

So long since I imagined lavender colored hair. Sensual and lovely, bless you my friend. It’s been too many days, months without your dear voice. Welcome home. ❤️🕊️🥰

rena's avatar

Thank you, dear Judith 🌻 Think lavender scent 🤭

Judith L Hubbard's avatar

Of course! ❤️🕊️🥰

The Sea in Me's avatar

We Have Not Long to Love

By Tennessee Williams

.

We have not long to love.

Light does not stay.

The tender things are those

we fold away.

Coarse fabrics are the ones

for common wear.

In silence I have watched you

comb your hair.

Intimate the silence,

dim and warm.

I could but did not, reach

to touch your arm.

I could, but do not, break

that which is still.

(Almost the faintest whisper

would be shrill.)

So moments pass as though

they wished to stay.

We have not long to love.

A night. A day....

Rajani Radhakrishnan's avatar

That last line is so moving... goodbye is not goodbye forever.

rena's avatar

Thank you so much, Rajani 🌻

Joe Nichols's avatar

This is heavy but incredibly intimate. That moment of watching the light leave someone’s eyes, refusing to blink because you want to hold onto the very last second of their gaze, is about as fiercely human as it gets. It’s a devastatingly beautiful tribute to a love that refuses to let death have the final word. "Never goodbye, under a blue moon goodnight" just broke my heart a little.

This is putting words to a kind of grief and devotion that I can relate to.

rena's avatar

Thank you so much, Joe 🌻

Haram Tanveer's avatar

Moved something in my heart.

Geraldine A. V. Hughes's avatar

Dear Rena, UNBROKEN is soulful and ethereal, your atmospheric composition touches my heartstrings, a heart beats in the space between your words. May you be happy and healthy✌️&💛Geraldine

rena's avatar

Thank you so much, Geraldine 🌻

Paul Wittenberger's avatar

A last moment lingers. Memory may one day falter, but your poem remembers.

rena's avatar

Thank you so much, Paul 🌻 Loved your dazzling creation this morning

The Sea in Me's avatar

'The notes on the waves

They lulled me

Clouds diplomatic

Obscuring what pains us

Disappears'

Lovely writing Rena!

rena's avatar

Beautiful. Thank you so much, Síodhna 🌻

rena's avatar

Thank you so much, Síodhna 🌻