Can't Let You Go

It seemed as if I’d emerged from a dream, 

With images deep inside my mind, 

As I lay motionless and silent in bed. 

But when I found that you weren’t by my side, 

The false dream slipped away, 

As memories came to stay, 

Of the things that we’d heard, 

And the things that we’d seen. 

To think! I’ve wasted so much time, 

Constantly and aimlessly trawling online, 

Making up friends, 

And making no sense. 

I was blind to the truth that I found, 

And I can’t believe what has happened to me, 

With the things that we did, 

And the things that we said. 

How best to tell you? 

Of matters I know now to be true. 

Only by putting my words to pen and paper, 

To live within this short and tatty letter. 

And from my pathetic handwriting, 

Scruffy, awkward, and clumsy, 

You’ll know this solitary piece, 

Could only have come from me. 

Yet this scrawl is made by the same hand, 

That until recently grasped yours, 

And is moved by one who loves you, 

With feelings undiminished by acceptance, 

That our bitter-sweet affair, 

This play, we staged, 

Poorly written and woefully cast, 

Is nearing its mournful end. 

But at this time, 

And this moment, 

Given the safety curtain has yet to fall, 

The auditorium’s lights remain dim, 

And its doors are still to be released, 

There is the truth I need you to know, 

That in my thoughts, heart, and soul, 

I can’t let you go. 

Image: Couple at New Year's Eve party 1959 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive 

If you would like to hear this poem adapted to an original song, original music, and with an accompanying video, please check out the following YouTube link.