Shades of Bittersweet

In Oriental philosophies, we sometimes encounter the yin-yang, a symbol that expresses the balance of things in life, referring to the universal opposites, such as positive and negative, good and evil, darkness and light, hot and cold, and so forth. On a more personal level, we experience life in moments of ups and downs; there are those times we think of as sweet and easy-going and other times of bitterness and hardship. At any moment in life, we can look back at the progression of events and the best we might be able to say is that it has been bittersweet.

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Contrary

The opposite of love cannot be hate,

As one might think,

Or the thesaurus says it is.

The opposite of love is fear

Of living on the brink

And losing that which gives us bliss.

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The opposite of hate cannot be love,

As we believe

From the examples we have seen.

The opposite of hate is trust

In one another’s fast reprieve,

Accepting what we could have been.

r. nuñez, 11/2014

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A Mosaic Remembrance

The Dream Enigma

A dream’s an enigmatic thing – ‘tis not –

Recalling in a patch-work way

Some past event that sense and time forgot,

Distorting facts and rearranging scenes,

So day is night, a month a day,

And what we’d rather seems beyond the means?

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And then, retelling what was in the dream

Confuses both the mind and brain,

For it is all a blur, as it would seem.

Recoiling from the known reality,

We are unable to explain

What there we came to hear and thought to see.

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To further stress upon the moment’s plight,

Of which the dream presumed to tell,

There’s also failure to remember quite

What happened somewhere in a time now past,

That somehow into some abyss befell …

And yet, forever, will the mem’ry last.

r. nuñez, 7/2016

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Just Passing Through

Bittersweet

Every window in the city

Is like a painting of the street.

It isn’t always bright or pretty;

It’s not always nice and neat ...

Done in shades of bittersweet.

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If you sojourn in a small town,

There’re fewer places there to hide.

There’s no lowdown and no go ‘round;

You can see the other side ...

And you can take it all in stride.

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When your hunger can’t be sated,

Though there’s plenty there to eat,

It will taste of bittersweet.

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There’s no window in the country;

There’s no reflection in the sky.

Wholesome remnants in the pantry,

Wholesome color in your eye,

And the seasons never lie.

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Life is never quite complete ...

Sometimes life is bittersweet.

r. nuñez, 1/2019

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In your Dreams

Sonnet #7

I stir in febrile dreams in dark of night

And linger there in refuge from the clime;

We bask together, children in a rite

That has endured the passages of time.

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It is a fleeting moment, to be sure,

As passion rules the heart and lust the soul;

And words are absent in that overture

That stages traits of being, which you stole.

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Oh, how we romp and wallow in our heat

And hug each other, moving as if one.

My loss in you has made it all complete.

I hold you as if life has just begun

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And damn the sun that once I held as dear;

It wakes you up, and thus, I disappear.

r. nuñez, 7/2019