This gentle melancholy,
have you felt it?
Has it come to you like an uninvited and invisible guest
joining you and your friends,
enjoying with you the time and company?
Did you wonder if you were the only one feeling it?
Did you too ask yourself the questions:
Why has this feeling come, and from where?
Do not be so stuck on answering these questions, or any others.
Let the questions remain with you, unanswered,
as you linger late with your friends, yet remain unattached,
as the feelings dwell within you, as yet unexplained.
Resolve not to need to resolve
or explain away what you feel.
Let yourself feel it,
Let it grip your soul
the same way you would grip the hand
of a long-lost lover on her death-bed
for a moment and then let go.
Have you watched as this gentle feeling turned vicious?
Did you too try to run from it,
to lose it?
Or did you listen to it,
walk with it,
slowly feel it become gentle once more,
become subtle and sweet?
Listen now to this gentle but quietly persistent melancholy,
don’t you hear it?
Brian Leibold 