Robert Friday and William Bergquist
This is the second in a set of documents written by Robert Friday and William Bergquist. As in the first document, Friday and Bergquist offer contrasting views of the life each of them is now leading. Sitting by the Atlantic Ocean in France, Bob reflects on the devastating dementia that has afflicted his loving wife. Bill reflects on the state of blessings in which he finds himself, with his wife sitting beside him, viewing the same ocean in the Eastern United States.
Bob
This week I finished another poem. This had its origins from a recent 5 day mental health escape I took out to the dramatic and glorious rocky coast of Bretagne near St Malo/Dinard/St Lunaire. On a craggy spit of land above where the emerald waters of the North Atlantic crash against those rocks I sat for an afternoon, contemplating Life and Love:
Amidst the Rocks and Water
Below . . . the sea waters, so émeraude and blue,
Scary craggy rocks, so savagely cool.
A lone gull cries sharply as it sails right on by.
Above . . . all this beauty. And me. Pondering why.
Why has this happened, why, oh damn. Why?
Tryin’ to stay happy but there’s just times I gotta cry
‘Cause it hurts in my heart, in my head, in my soul.
My sweetheart ain’t here, where these waves crash and roll.
She’s not here. She’s not there. She’s nowhere to be found.
Oh, there’s someone who looks like her, but she can’t make a sound
That has any sense or meaning — that’s almost all gone.
And what remains is confused, frightened, scared and forlorn.
So away I head, to these rocks and the sea
To breathe deep for a while, to recharge, to heal me;
Letting Nature’s wild wonder and beauty prevail
If but for these few moments, as I stare down the dark trail.
But I miss her, I miss her, I miss “her” so damned much,
And I hate using all this beauty as a mental health crutch.
I just want to rejoice and breathe it in, to feel the grandeur inside;
And live back in the time when she was right by my side.
Sharing it all . . .
