The Sanctuary of Solitude

My heart, abandoned by the world, has sought its own retreat,
And if my breath no longer comes, let sorrow claim defeat.

No longing left for distant skies, no wish to turn around,
My doves of hope have lost their wings, their cages tightly bound.

Within this silent, ruined place, my voice has disappeared,
As though the grief I've held inside has swallowed all I've feared.

I search in every passing face for someone I once knew,
But every street I wander through has lost its fragrance too.

No one has asked how I have been through all these years of pain,
No one has seen the wounded heart that hides behind the rain.

My nights have learned to live with shadows, dawn has passed me by,
And time has placed its heaviest burden on my shoulders, dry.

I am the candle in the storm that never mocks the night,
Though trembling in the fiercest winds, I still preserve my light.

You cannot know what storms reside within a silent chest,
For those who smile before the world may hide a thousand tests.

I seem a tree in springtime dressed in green and blooming grace,
Yet underneath, my wounded roots have lost their resting place.

I only wished that someone, someday, would find my way,
And say, "You're tired, come sit with me; let life be kind today."

I never asked for castles grand, nor treasures made of gold,
I only wished for one true heart, a hand to safely hold.

Someone who'd stay when storms arrived, who wouldn't turn away,
Someone who'd hear the words my silence never dared to say.

How easily they walk away, who once made promises,
How painful when the faith we held dissolves in emptiness.

From human coldness, I withdrew, to solitude I came,
Perhaps within my quiet world, I'd find a gentler flame.

Yet loneliness, at times, speaks words that echo through my soul,
For even heaven seems too far to hear my story whole.

If someday love should find my door, like wind upon the sea,
Tell it to enter gently, for this heart has suffered silently.

I still hold dreams of brighter days, of mornings born anew,
Of skies where darkness disappears and every hope comes true.

Though weary of this endless road, of nights that never end,
My broken heart still wonders if hope will come again.

From yesterday's remaining ashes, I shall build a flame,
Though life has turned me back so often, I remain the same.

I give the world my deepest wounds, my sorrows and my tears,
Perhaps one day the passing years will understand my fears.

If someone asks me why I walk so quietly alone,
Tell them a heart that loved too much has made this road its own.

And if they ask what love has left within my heart today,
Tell them a memory, a tear, a dream that slipped away.

I am a traveler on a road whose destination I cannot see,
Yet with wounded feet I carry on, though life has burdened me.

The end of this long tale remains unknown to me,
Its beginning lives within my heart, where memories still breathe.

I have but one remaining wish before my nights depart:
That someday all these endless sorrows find a home apart.

Perhaps one day, within this silence, a door of kindness will unfold,
And someone with a gentle smile will warm this heart grown cold.

And on that day, I'll tell the world, so merciless and wide:
Though I have died a thousand times, love never left my side.