Sunset Beach

You have been near enough dead
enough times, always coming back,
sometimes to the same life, sometimes,
more often, not. You have been near enough dead
to know you can survive the things
that have broken you in the past,
even when you think you cannot
and so you walk the sunset beach
aware of the night but willing to believe
in tomorrow.

About this poem

Driving home from Rutland (about an hour away) today, I found myself thinking about all the loss I have experienced since moving here to Vermont. No one in particular, and not even feeling sorry for myself, the normal loss of a man my age over a fifteen year period. Some hurt. Some crushed me. And yet, here I am, in a life I love. And grateful, both that I am here, and that every heart survival helps me for the next one.

The picture was taken in Provincetown, Mass.

Tom