Jewel Box
“Harvest moon: around the pond I wander and the night is gone.” Matsuo Basho
my mind was turning over the loss
of you as if the loss were an object
in my hand, holding this way and that –
sitting watching the harvest moon
huge in the night sky –
sorting and sifting the way
I used to pick through my grandmother’s
jewel box, looking for the perfect piece
to sparkle on my childish breast.
but the box is empty now.
nothing but dust within.
harvest moon 9/13/2019
kanzen sakura 
Sep 15, 2019 @ 14:54:42
Nice mash-up of image and concept. Leaves one pondering…
Sep 15, 2019 @ 15:12:19
we are wondering now where my mother’s jewelry gone…
Some of it might be tucked away somewhere… we don’t know.
Sep 15, 2019 @ 16:34:56
Oh I can feel this one……..I remember picking through my mom’s costume jewelery………so poignant that the box is empty now, with dust inside. I can feel that emptiness, and the remembering.
Sep 15, 2019 @ 17:04:57
Oh this is sad, Toni. Nothing in the box…a sad reminder of the passing of a life. And the emptiness one feels about this loss. This feels like a very personal write, Toni, and is very moving.
Sep 15, 2019 @ 17:06:02
Thank you Mary. It is a personal write.
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Sep 15, 2019 @ 17:53:21
This is incredibly moving, Toni! I can picture “the harvest moon huge in the night sky – sorting and sifting the way.”
Sep 15, 2019 @ 18:09:14
Thank you Sanaa
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Sep 15, 2019 @ 19:41:17
A truly stunning extended metaphor – deftly penned. I think that this poem is very especial … in every which way I can think of. And thank you for the Matsuo Basho quote … an indelible line, to be sure.
Sep 15, 2019 @ 20:23:12
Loss is indeed difficult it’s intangible yet it grieves us so when we are suffering. It can be harder to find balance during the full moon. It plays with emotions in my opinion. I went out to view the full moon and I just stared at it speechless.
Sep 15, 2019 @ 20:33:04
It is a beauty, isn’t it?
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Sep 15, 2019 @ 21:12:18
Absolutely haunting with aching nostalgia. And knowing also that grandmother must have had similar sorrows in her life – the human experience. Jewels, boxes, emptiness, and hopefully jewels again. Lovely write.
Sep 15, 2019 @ 21:41:24
Thank you.
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Sep 16, 2019 @ 00:49:34
Some people leave a huge gap in a life that cannot be filled. Best have an empty jewel box once filled with wonderful jewels rather than one crammed with plastic rings and things from the Cornflakes packet.
Sep 16, 2019 @ 05:27:34
What a poignant ending to an affecting poem
Sep 16, 2019 @ 08:33:58
The metaphor really works in this melancholy, wistful poem.
Sep 16, 2019 @ 10:37:38
I thought I’d already commented, but don’t find it here. No matter. Take all of the positive comments above and repeat them. There.