The Beautiful Feelings

"The cinema is the expression 

  of the beautiful feelings." 

           ~Jean Luc Godard

The beautiful feelings

always begin by taking

their leave,

as some things 

only become visible

by disappearing.

Like a scent of sadness

making the heart known,

in silence

both full and empty,

drained and restored,

an hourglass

recycling its own

memories of 

sand and salt.

The beautiful feelings

are like leaves that brighten

before dying,

then wither and surrender

to the wind.

Childhoods are played

in these leaves.

The smell of going away

still prickling in our noses

as cold air

often proceeds a goodbye.

In this way

everything is turned over

and sometimes

over turned.

The boy lets go

of the man

who burnished by

too much joy

sometimes

gives way to

a poet

who pauses, then

returns to raking

his warmest memories

of Summer.

Peter Valentyne

November 2018