Let’s cut to the chase, I may have found my new favorite poem today. “Yesterday” by WS Merwin straight up knocked my socks off. It’s seemingly simple, recounting a conversation with a friend over an event that happened years ago, but the emotional content is anything but. The poem is heartbreaking, but not because anything particularly tragic happened it it. It’s heartbreaking because at some point every one of us has completely wasted a moment to share with someone we love for no reason - and in this case, the poet wishes he could’ve returned to the past and spent this moment with his father. We never know when those we love will be pulled away from us. It could be today, tomorrow, in five minutes, or in fifty years, but the truth of the matter is that every moment with them is valuable. My mom always tells me the only thing that matters at the end of this life is our relationships with each other. Everything else is fleeting. You’ve lived a good life if you’ve made a positive impact on those around you. Don’t be like the son in this poem who didn’t have a few minutes to spend with his aging father. Get away from the iPhones and laptops and reconnect with your loved ones. They’re too important to let them slip away.
Yesterday
My friend says I was not a good son
you understand
I say yes I understand
he says I did not go
to see my parents very often you know
and I say yes I know
even when I was living in the same city he says
maybe I would go there once
a month or maybe even less
I say oh yes
he says the last time I went to see my father
I say the last time I saw my father
he says the last time I saw my father
he was asking me about my life
how I was making out and he
went into the next room
to get something to give me
oh I say
feeling again the cold
of my fathers hand the last time
he says and my father turned
in the doorway and saw me
look at my wristwatch and he
said you know I would like you to stay
and talk with me
oh yes I say
but if you are busy he said
I don't want you to feel that you
have to
just because I'm here
I say nothing
he says my father
said maybe
you have important work you are doing
or maybe you should be seeing
somebody I dont want to keep you
I look out the window
my friend is older than I am
he says and I told my father it was so
and I got up and left him then
you know
though there was nowhere I had to go
and nothing I had to do
W. S. Merwin