It’s interesting.  This poem started of with the intention of being a lighthearted look at the sort of a person who would look at Shangri-La an think that all it’s missing is a casino.  By the time, my pen hit paper, it became a reflection on how I felt after the end of a recent relationship.  To say that I fell on dark days would be to, I think, say far too little and yet more than I could say until I had healed a bit from the experience.

Felt (The Loss of Shangri-La)
by Michael Romani

Once upon a time, when you were mine
It was like walking on star-shine
A glowing laugh in every minute
As long as you were in it
Some people can live a lifetime
Eased back into a slow rhyme
There in that solitary moment
Wondering what it all meant
Accepting their lot in happiness
Dancing with you was my bliss
It's this and your touch and kiss
Among the treasures that I most miss
And I don't know how I'm to do it
To live life without your blues in it

When I close my eyes
It truly comes as no surprise
That I still see your face
Longing for your sweet embrace
I watched as you played the world in laughter
Knowing where I belonged forever after
Never dreaming that I would wake up
To find the point of our break up
While you tell me how easy this is for me
Every breath without you burns inside me
Sleepless nights spent in thought
Of having lost what I had always sought
I silently watch your path from afar
A mystical, magical flow like a rising star

The loneliness that I felt, indwelt at great cost
Since that moment I realized all I had lost
Is like a darkness from which I don't awake
And when I do  what I feel is my soul shake
It's a strange feeling that kills my word flow
My light grows dim cast into increasing shadow
As if gazing on Shangri-La has become a burden
And despite all the beauty, I'm simply hurting
This much pain should be forbidden to anyone
Where every step feels like it could be the last one
One day this may be like a rite of passage through
To all that's right and all that's true
They say this pain builds a better man
But, who will put me back together again... if they can?

(c) January 17, 2019   Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved