Have you experienced Renewal?

 

A poem exploring the profound emotional shift following the end of a relationship, moving from chaotic devastation to a sudden sense of survival and resurrection. 

The speaker describes experiencing the simultaneous heaven and hell of early heartbreak before pivoting on December 5th—just three days after the departure—to feel surprisingly reborn rather than destroyed. 

Drawing on literary and biblical allusions from Dante, Mephibosheth, and Shakespeare's Macbeth, the poem reframes the agonizing numbness of the past as a mere tragic play rather than true death.

(A lone voice whispers)

In the wind,  

In a gale, or at sea,  

Evoked by angels at daylight,  

Awoken by devils at midnight.  

And just broken  

In between.  

I once wandered like Dante,  

Experiencing heaven and hell  

Simultaneously,  

Like a shadow being,  

A Djinn.  

Unfolded like a rare, old-world map,  

Cold and lost as life's winds destroyed all my sanctuaries.  

I once used as cover while my broken heart recovered.  

But today,  

On December the fifth,  

The third day after you left,  

I feel resurrected and reincarnated like Mephibosheth.  

For, like in all relationships, holding Death's cold hands while you once wandered isn’t real death:

  

Only a tragic play.  

Yet one can feel burnt at the stake,  

Like the family and servants in a play 

Written by someone known as Shakespeare,  

Called Macbeth.  

(C) Copyright John Duffy