“The Cairn” published at LatinosUSA

On By Mike U.In Poetry

Hello, friends. Just a quick note to let you know my poem “The Cairn” is now available at LatinosUSA. Many thanks to editor Michelle Navajas for being so kind as to publish this piece. Truly appreciated, Michelle.

“The Cairn”
© 2023 by Michael L. Utley

a handful of stones
the currency of a hardened heart
cannot purchase a reprieve
from the weight of mountains
upon my soul

scree of memories
who can navigate the slope
of ankle-breaking regrets
the sharpened shale
of the empty slate
where hope
was once etched
and now only
dust remains…

You can read the rest of my poem here:

“The Cairn”by Michael L. Utley

I hope you’ll consider following and subscribing to LatinosUSA–a place of unique visions and creative voices from around the world.

36 thoughts on ““The Cairn” published at LatinosUSA”

  6. Mich, thank you so much for publishing this amazing work by Mike.

    Dear Mike, your work always moves me in ways I can’t even begin to describe. I am lost in the beauty of the creativity captured within the work. Your incredible clarity in how you describe your surroundings is so original. You find yourself walking along beside the two of you, captured by the complexity and the sorrow. Yet the beauty you share as you are walking this path with someone you love is literally breathtaking.

    Each stanza is captivating and stunning. I can relate to this stanza when I think of my first high-school love and think about our last walk together.

    «I held your hand
    more tightly than I should have
    I couldn’t let go
    not then
    (not now)
    but you didn’t seem to mind
    your trembling fingers
    nested in my palm
    like a dying sparrow
    losing heat
    as you lost opacity»

    Thank you so much, dear Mich, for this publication, and thank you, Mike for sharing your gorgeous work on Latinoenglishedition.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Kindest thanks, Joni. I’m so glad to know you liked this poem. It’s another take on my persistent theme regarding my inability to save someone I loved. Like you, I find tying human emotions into nature metaphors to be such a viscerally expressive form of writing. My nature photography background, as well as my having grown up on a farm, instilled in me a profound love and respect for nature, and I just can’t seem to write much of anything without including nature imagery.

      Your appraisals are always so thoughtful and concise, and I appreciate your sterling support so much, my friend. 😊

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. You’re so kind, Aaysid. Thanks so much for your wonderful appraisal of this poem. Love and loss can be devastating, and being powerless to help someone we love can haunt us forever.

      It’s always good to see you stop by to say hello. I hope you’re enjoying the new year. 😊

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  15. Mike, my dear friend, this poem is breathtaking in its quiet sorrow — tender, devastating, and profoundly human. Your imagery carries grief with such grace, turning loss into something both beautiful and unbearable. The metaphor of the cairn as a marker of love, memory, and a shattered heart is deeply moving. Every line feels like a soft ache that lingers long after the poem ends. A truly soulful and unforgettable piece. Congratulations👍

    Please excuse my late reply here, my friend. I did leave a response on the site where it was published. I wasn’t feeling well over the past couple of weeks due to a viral infection.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hi, Saima. I hope you’re feeling better now and have recovered from your recent illness. Sending you some good vibes to hopefully brighten your day a bit. 🌞

      Yes, this poem is rather painful. Memories of watching someone I loved fade away and feeing utterly powerless to help her. It was as though she were disappearing before my eyes, a common thread among several of my poems here on my blog. Sometimes it feels as though we go through life accompanied by the memories of ghosts, almost–people who left us in one way or another, through death or break-ups or neglect or time/distance or whatever…and they may still be around, but they’re no longer part of our lives. Losing opacity seemed like a fitting way to describe it.

      I’ve always been fascinated with cairns for some reason. Stumbling upon them on forgotten desert trails, or spotting them unexpectedly in mountain streams–the evidence of a capricious soul’s monument to nature–always delighted me and left me pondering who had been there before me and if that person left that pile of stones as a waypoint marker or as an attempt to memorialize his own existence, to be remembered after his passing. I sometimes feel like my blog is my own personal cairn, and perhaps one day the subject of this poem might come across it by accident and recognize my heart among the memories of the stones and know that I still care.

      Anyway, I’m rambling. Thank you for your always intriguing and thoughtful appraisals. I hope life is treating you with gentle care, my friend. 😊

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