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Open Poetry #49
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Thirteen Years Today, My Beloved Horse
| Open Poetry #49 |
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Thirteen Years Today, My Beloved Horse |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa 
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Thirteen years today, my sweet, sweet, darling horse since that day my heart was scraped raw and gasping and my tears nearly drowned us both. Four thousand seven hundred and forty-eight days of shiver-ache missing you and talking to you every day and the assurance that you are safe and happy in Heaven and knowing that one day we will be together again and still my heart is scraped raw and gasping but my tears only fall on me . . . Owl |
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| © Copyright 2015 Diana van den Berg - All Rights Reserved | |||
suthern
since 1999-07-29
Posts 20723Louisiana |
I managed to hold off tears until the last few lines... and then lost control of them because our fur-children - whatever their size or species - are so generous with their understanding, lending their fur to absorb our tears. So the loneliness is intensified when we're shedding tears for them, missing their comfort as well as the joy they gave us. I have always felt honored to share a birthday with Flicka - and send my love and hugs to you and Benji and Cleo. Anniversaries always hurt even more than all the other days of missing our heavenly friends that blessed our lives each moment they were with us here on earth. |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you, Ruth, for this exquisite and compassionate reply. You understand better than any, and I couldn't have wished for a better or more fitting person to share Flicka's November birthday. (God certainly does work in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.) Yes, the anniversaries hurt so much more than the other days. Love, hugs, waggy-tail barks and purr-meeows from me, Benji and Cleo - to you, Colin and Dixie |
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EmmaRose Senior Member
since 2011-03-02
Posts 1376Midwest |
My heart aches for you, I know the pain as well. It never goes away when you are touched by a beautiful friend in the animal kingdom. Touched in a way that can never be translated in the world of 'humans' Their love is unconditional, without judgment , deception or any agendas. Rare to find in this world. May your tears bring the much needed rain throughout the world |
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ethome Member Patricius
since 2000-05-14
Posts 11858New Brunswick Canada |
I just don't know exactly what to say because I have been touched by the same emotions and there's no words of solace that can replace the reality of such a bond between human and animal. You wrote this very well. Eric true love never looks after it's own interests |
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Michael
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-13
Posts 7666California |
Diana, the unconditional love an animal is capable of giving is something deep and moving. Unforgettable. It's been 17 years since I lost my dog. I still have the ache. ((hugs)) Michael |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you, EmmaRose, for your beautiful reply filled with compassion. Yes, the love from animals is so pure, so perfect, and, as you say, unconditional, without judgement, deception or any agendas. Thank you for that beautiful but unexpected wish for rain throughout the world. I now share that wish with you. And may the rain not only feed the earth and the plants and the animals and people, but also wash the world as clean and pure as it possibly can of pain and suffering and bring solace and comfort to all. |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Eric, you said that you didn't know what to say to help and then you went right ahead and said something that helped. Yes, no words of solace can replace the reality of such a bond between human and animal, BUT they can and do comfort, as yours - and Ruth and EmmaRose before you - and Michael after you - have done. In one way, I am sorry that you have experienced this ripping pain, but in another, I am glad, because all of us who have, know that it is worth it. The pain of their loss is equal to the gift of their love - and none of us would have it any other way. Thank you for your kind comment on my poem, but so much more for your gift of understanding and of comfort about the loss of an animal. Owl |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Michael, thank you for your beautiful reply. You are so very, very right. I am so very sorry that you lost your dog and that you are going through the pain, but, as I said to Eric, I am also glad, because the pain is equal to the gift of your doggie's love (and yours for him or her) and I know you would rather have the pain AND the gift of having had his love on earth and for 17 years from Heaven, than not having had him or her at all. Thank you for the ((hugs)). More ((hugs)) back. |
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MICHELMAS Member
since 2012-02-15
Posts 305Lancashire England |
Amazing how an animal can be closer than a family member. They can never tell us their feelings but we certainly know, and they certainly know ours. Memories |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you for your very, very special and beautiful and understanding (in both senses of the word) reply, Michael. I am not disagreeing with you at all - it is just a case of semantics (and I know you will agree with me) - but they DO tell us how they feel - it just isn't in the words we use to humans, but in a much deeper bonding of communication. And as for their understanding of the ACTUAL WORDS in long sentences of ours, I could tell you some stories that I wouldn't blame you one little bit for not believing. Yesterday, I had 2 wonderful experiences that blew me away - one each with a feral mother cat and one of her 3 kittens. The long sentence thing only applied to the kitten, though. Besides loving every human and every animal and all of them loving him back, my horse was highly educated. I explained all sorts of things to him - like the rotation of the earth on its axis causing day and night; the revolution of the earth around the sun causing the seasons; the meaning of "succulent" with regard to grass. My horse wasn't 1 in a million - he was 1 in all the horses who were ever born (everyone thought so, not just me). If I get started on stories about him, I will never stop. |
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devina Member Elite
since 1999-10-28
Posts 3539Cali |
Lucky Lady, to have felt such love and still be accepting of the mirror side- that pain. this line tugs...I tend to fall for animals with way too short a lifespan  "...Four thousand seven hundred and forty-eight days of shiver-ache missing you..." Hugs to you, this is just gorgeous! ~d Open arms can be the most fragile in the world... [This message has been edited by devina (05-01-2015 09:54 PM).] |
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JamesMichael Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-16
Posts 33336Kapolei, Hawaii, USA |
seems like your horse was a rich blessing...james |
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Marchmadness Member Rara Avis
since 2007-09-16
Posts 9271So. El Monte, California |
Only those of us who have known the deep love for an animal/companion can really understand this, Diana. Ida |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you devina for your kind words. Yes, I am a very lucky woman to have been blessed with the most precious horse that ever was or will be born. He was 37½ human years mature when he went to Heaven, and I had been his for 20½ of those years and my children and I had known and ridden him for 2 years before we became his. And, oh yes! This pain is worth it. I have dozens and dozens and dozens of poems to and about him, in his living years and in the years he has been in Heaven which are testimony to our loving bond. |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Oh, yes, James, you are right! My beloved horse, Flicka, was a rich blessing. He was a rich blessing over and over and over and over again. I am extremely honoured and awed that God gave him to me. Flicka and all my other animals will be waiting for me at the gates of Heaven when I die - I know that - and we will never be parted again. |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Yes, Ida, you are so right. The love for and from an animal is the closest thing to Heaven that I know, and impossible (for me anyway) to describe, though I have tried innumerable times, and fallen short every time. Thank you for your reply and understanding. |
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Spiros Zafiris Senior Member
since 2002-10-20
Posts 982Canada |
..be strong, Diana.you make us feel what you feel.>sp ~ |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you, Spiros, for your sweet words of comfort. |
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