Poem by R.M. Dolin, January 10, 2026
Read Finished Version
Remembrance Wind (Stream of Conscience)
When I hiked the highest mesa
to rest under changing aspen
Wind whispered,
“Why do you come alone?“
“Because,” I answer,
“when you take from nature,
you must leave no mark of your passing.”
When I rode the Paris-Roubauix,
Wind pushed hard headwinds
into my resolve, asking
“Why do you ride alone?“
“Because,” I answer,
“suffering should be in solitude.”
When I lean my motorcycle
into a predawn hairpin turn
on the autumn equinox,
Wind presses cold stillness against
my aged leathers shouting
“Why do you risk alone?“
“Because,” I throttle,
“pain is a necessary part of consequence.”
When a streetlamp on
tired cobblestone I no longer claim
cries in the rain,
Wind cuts through tattered remnants
of the person I set out to become
and queries,
“Why do you wander alone?“
“Because,” I softly say,
“it’s the company I have peace.”
When Wind slows down
enough to let me rest,
It quietly inquires,
“Will you always be alone?“
“I have you,” I silently whisper,
“and long ago burned
the last tender touch
of her last lingering kiss
in a woven sage
sending heirlooms of hope
from a dying love you carry to me
whenever we talk.
There are two versions of every poem I write, the original stream-of-conscientiousness (SOC), version and the final fully edited version. This SOC version of Remembrance Wind, was written in twenty minutes in one pass. Two days later, after many edits, the final version is completed. Comparing the two shows how in the SOC version, I spill out what I need to say while the final version presents how I want to say it. I have met poets who only write SOC versions of their poems believing the raw emotion matters most. They are not wrong, but for me, poetry is about condensing powerful emotions into as few words as possible, so every word matters and must be carefully considered and that takes multiple tries and lots of edits. I know a poet who writes thousands of SOC poems every year while I write less than a hundred. He feels the need to move on to his next emotions as quickly as possible while I prefer to live with the emotions of my poems until they are fully exercised. Read Final Version
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