If You Have To Leave, Go Swiftly: Poem

If You Have To Leave, Go Swiftly

If you have to leave go, go swiftly before I can summon
My voice to call you back; go swiftly before I can raise my hand
To stop you, to try to hold you back, to touch you
To reason with you and try to make you understand.

If you have to leave, ignore this stifling heart and this biting cold
If tears prick my eyes its because I never knew
How to say goodbye; its just because, just because
I was ignorant of love, loss and all their laws.

If you have to leave don't turn back for a last look
I wouldn't be able to bear that, no, not that;
I would remember the warmth of your embrace
That place near your heart, my own treasured place.

Go now and be done: You have to go your way;
Leave me to my thoughts, to think and pray
Leave me to this cold wintry life alone, to wait
Until my life's choices mingle with my personal fate.

Copyright: Rani Turton

Pretend, Just Pretend: Poem

Pretend, Just Pretend

As I write these lines, simple words that
Tear at my heart; pour from my heart
As they say what I cannot say: as they speak
The unimaginable, the words I left aside
For another day

Pretend, just pretend that I am,
That I am the one you love
Here before you, here at last
Waiting, for the words I want to hear
Words for which I hadn't asked;
Words that wound and sear

I am this moment. I am the thought.
I am the emotion, but alas, not thine.
I, who belong to nobody, am yours
And yours even to decline.

I am the light and the strength
I am love and its divine essence
Prtend, just prtend foe an instant that I am
The person who has your acquiescence.

There is a truth to be found in your eyes
Ah, in your eyes, so evident;
You look at me clearly; you are unaware
That, for so many summers now
You hold me in love's tricky snare.
You hold me in an emotion I can hardly bear

The quest for truth lent an edge to my rhetoric
I , in my wanderings, left intellect behind;
Reason and arument did not wisdom bestow;
My heart spoke to me, and with my soul I had
Much to discuss; much to question: but
The rain did fall and fall and the wind blow.

There were hours of contemplation
Wondering where to go and when;
You will know when I come to you
In all simplicity, no questions to ask
And no replies to give;
Pretend, just pretend you love me
For a moment, a day, for eternity.

Copyright: Rani Turton