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Notes From an Unlived Life

by Ken Harnisch

Do the notes of an unlived life ever call to you
To finish out the song? They do to me
And though I seem happy in the circumstance
Of domesticity, still, on the lonely nights, I hear
The whistles and the foghorns
Of old trains and boats
Calling out to me, to come take the unfinished ride.

Some say they are only ghosts of boyhood chums
Calling me to play. Others say it is the siren song
Of lovers lost, whose soft kisses and embracing arms
I longed for then and still miss now.
Perhaps it is lovers of more recent vintage,
Who tumbled into my world quite suddenly
And broke up the pavement in a world
Too well ordered for far too long.

I do not know, only that the song
Has notes I used to sing out loud
And a melody still haunts me
Enough so I will hum the tune
Some nights
Hoping someone, somewhere
Knows the lyrics
To help me sing the song of
An ever restless heart


08/24/2002

Posted on 03/04/2010
Copyright © 2024 Ken Harnisch

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by George Hoerner on 03/04/10 at 12:10 PM

Nick Adams rides again across the landscape growing up, do we ever? Your write rings true Ken and who doesn't have memories of old lovers and the possiblility of the new?

Posted by Charlie Morgan on 03/04/10 at 04:56 PM

...ken, lacing this with the proper wonderment of how we come to be fulfilled--in many ways...great, drenching write.

Posted by Vivienne Grant on 02/24/12 at 09:36 AM

although my life could never be described as unlived, there are myriad adventures still to be embarked upon "...old trains and boats Calling out to me, to come take the unfinished ride." this line is especially poignant, as I have always had a 'thing' for trains and boats ... my gratitude, once more, for penning feelings shared

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