When I Was Sixteen...

I feel I want to say something Max but I don't know what it is so silence will have to do. Good job

Yeatsian in its looking back and its beautiful images of loss and change, yet deeply mystical in its Sufistic awareness of the "missing something" no ordinary life can provide, this poem at firsts sounds despairing until you understand the speaker's resigned cosmic perspective, which has wisdom at its core rather than false nostalgia leading to maudlin memorializing: "nothingness merges into/ a throbbing sort of oblivion". What a marvelous pointing to emptiness of the self finding form of the world, emptiness of the world seeking form of the self. And the last line thunders with its "I crave for silence"; now that is purest desire, distilled down to the ultimate gesture, never to be sated as we 'want' things to be, only detached, fulfilled or forgotten suddenly when silence does finally come.

oh my god Max, I don;t know what to say either, are you hoping for death>

Silence is good and even healthy at times. But wasn't sixteen grand? We can relive those years of youth that are stashed in our memories and heart and ponder those times when we are silent. This poem was profound and I loved it.

Excellent poem Max! But I disagree with April - I wouldn't want to be 16 again for anything! It was a difficult time, trapped between childhood and adulthood, feeling love and passion but not fully understanding those emotions. I think you capture that well in the lines "unclear but passionate". But now I seem to be able to relate more to the last lines, which is somewhat distressing ... "nothingness merges into a throbbing sort of oblivion".

However, I might be wrong, but I think some are misinterpreting the need for "silence". I don't think it's death or even a call for everyone to be quiet and leave you alone. Rather, I think you are saying here that you want the silence in your head ... a metaphor for the yearning to stop. The poem speaks of someone in their "sunset years" who no longer has the need to get up and go fufill the dreams he once had at sixteen.

In any event, great job!

Awesome Max

I think the silence he is referring to is a kind of peace that comes with maturity, when we stop expecting another person to fill our soul...(and get frustrated with the immature reasoning behind it....)...that peace IS the fulfillment. For me, anyway.

the silence of the memories or from the memories?

Muchos Gracias, Amigos!

John, my indefatigable commentator! If I had to select five best poems I ever read, one of the would be 'Why Shouldn't An Old Man Be Mad...' by William Butler Yeats.
So you espied the right shades in this poem, which was written some months ago.

All my other faithful friends, it's difficult to explain with mere words what prompted me to write this... what I am looking forward to. But I am honored by such a slew of comments, most of them really thought provoking and profound, which could lead to ten new threads to chase and versify in good time.

Thanks a lot, buddies!
Cheerz!

It's nice Max, but the expectations are much higher...

Yeah I wouldn't want to be a teen again at all. The older I get, the more content I seem to get. This is a piece that expresses a facet of the beautifully tragic human condition. Bravo.........

I know that I shall meet my fate

Somewhere among the clouds above

Those that I fight I do not hate

Those that I gaurd I do not love

-- William Butler Yeats

I loved it. I once read an article in a magazine discussing the preciousness of silence. You silented my thoughts for a moment

Ajay my friend,

Those four lines from W.B. Yeats are powerful enough to knock my head off.
Only recently I realized why the passion or venom behind four-letter words like Love or Hate goes missing when a man becomes mellower and mellower, beaten to a pulp by age and what we call in our grandiose terms 'experience'.

It feels like I wrote those four lines! Hats off to your selection, you are on my wavelength dear. Get well soon, we need to chew the gaff in near future, now that we have lost the opportunity to travel to Silvassa together!

Cheerz!

What a sense of loss!

A great piece!