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Shawn Patrick Cormier

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Member Since: Oct, 2003

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That Endless Runway
by Shawn Patrick Cormier → (All Poetry by Shawn Patrick Cormier)
   Rated "G" by the Author.
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A sestina written for my brother, Glenn Cormier, who was killed in a plane crash in 1984.

Should it be with regrets that I remember you?
Like a song left unsung, or the setting of the sun?
Was it the love of flying in your plane,
Or the kinship you felt with the wind
That caused you to run away
From all that you knew down that endless runway?

I recall with anger that infinite runway
Whose end you could not see, and soon you
Would be too far to return, like a land-lost castaway.
Then you would rise and soar like a gull, and dance with the sun,
And cast all your woes like chaff to the wind
As its drafts and draws coddled you plane.

And rising above the tiny town of your troubles in your plane
As you sought the end of that endless runway,
The only end you met was your own, for the wind
Died that clear September day, and you,
With the setting of the sun,
Were never to return as you flew away.

I take flights to the past myself as I lie asleep, and come away
With feelings of regret when I awaken. In my mind, my plane
Of memories soars above the sun-
Lit lands of times gone by, but my runway
Is always too short, and I land with sad thoughts of you.
But when I do awaken I can still feel the wind.

Yet it is not a gentle wind, but a cold, harsh wind
Which whispers your name, and asks why you went away,
And gives no answer. And is it you
I seem to see, regarding me as you would a plane,
With the scrutiny of a pilot accustomed to a runway
Of a diferent kind, where there's always sun?

So it is that when I watch the setting sun,
Or the march of clouds, or the play of the wind
On the flat bleakness of a runway,
And think of when you flew away
That September day, just you and your plane,
That it is with regrets that I remember you.

Yet I know that the sun
sets here to rise elsewhere far away,
And the wind
that dies here will soon carry me and my plane
Down that same endless runway,
and up, up to you. 

 


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 Reviews of "That Endless Runway"
Reviewed by Jim Dunlap
Reviewed on November 22, 2016
Very nicely done. This is a fine eulogy for your brother. Hopefully you will meet again beyond that final curtain.

You have a typo in the final line of stanza 2.


Reviewed on February 20, 2016
Thought provoking on so many levels. 'Loved it!

Love ya!

Jane

Reviewed by Amanda Jones
Reviewed on August 4, 2009
You write true: the memories we have of someone dearly departed quite alot of the time are filled with negative, guilty emotions. Like a story left half-written, or "like a song left unsung".

The wind? Fantastic metaphor, truly.

Reviewed by Lois Christensen
Reviewed on May 15, 2008
Memories of him will always be and in spirit he is with you now. God needed him to do work in heaven and took him to that place to be. He is not alone but with loved ones gone before and the angels and God.

Reviewed by m j hollingshead
Reviewed on November 18, 2007
poignant

Reviewed by Regis Auffray
Reviewed on September 7, 2006
Compelling sentiments that reach the depth of the soul; a fine tribute, Shawn. Thank you for sharing. Love and peace,

Regis

Reviewed by Elizabeth Taylor (Reader)
Reviewed on September 4, 2006
Now that is a poem worth remembering.

Well done and said.


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