'Sonnet' by Aaron Maniam
Read by Karen Ann Layton
Music: 'Lightless Dawn' by Kevin MacLeod
Video by Ivana Rezek
“Revue La Traductière n° 30/35e
Festival franco-anglais de poésie
Muzeul Florean – FIFE – 2012
Aaron Maniam:
Sonnet
My earliest response was a deep fear
Of forgetting you: naughty-eyes smile, laughter-lilt,
Your hands reluctantly in mine, quizzical tilt
Of your head as you explained that, even with sheer
Willpower, you couldn’t feel the same. When first
You said that, some poetic dam burst,
My heart flooded with memories I thought
Might dissolve if not pinned to words.
Only now, fraught
With tearlessness, do I learn that forgetting might
Have been kinder. The shards are always there, stark
Sentinels keeping sleep at bay; reminders of the need to fight
To be happy. Each day, first light
Brings a shining sliver of comfort. Then awareness, sight
And all I remember begin again their passage to the dark.
Read by Karen Ann Layton
Music: 'Lightless Dawn' by Kevin MacLeod
Video by Ivana Rezek
“Revue La Traductière n° 30/35e
Festival franco-anglais de poésie
Muzeul Florean – FIFE – 2012
Aaron Maniam:
Sonnet
My earliest response was a deep fear
Of forgetting you: naughty-eyes smile, laughter-lilt,
Your hands reluctantly in mine, quizzical tilt
Of your head as you explained that, even with sheer
Willpower, you couldn’t feel the same. When first
You said that, some poetic dam burst,
My heart flooded with memories I thought
Might dissolve if not pinned to words.
Only now, fraught
With tearlessness, do I learn that forgetting might
Have been kinder. The shards are always there, stark
Sentinels keeping sleep at bay; reminders of the need to fight
To be happy. Each day, first light
Brings a shining sliver of comfort. Then awareness, sight
And all I remember begin again their passage to the dark.
