Hiraeth: The Ache of Distant Shores
A house still stands where time has died,
Its bones embrace the empty tide.
The echoes hum in hollow halls,
A dirge of dust, a voice that calls.
The windows weep, the door sighs wide,
Yet no one steps, yet none abide.
The air still tastes of salted past,
Where hands held tight but couldn’t last.
The sea has hands, it pulls, it pleads,
It sings of love, it drowns in need.
But time is cruel and wind won’t wait—
The shore erodes, the hearts abate.
And so we ache for things long gone,
For broken doors and ghostly dawns.
For voices lost, for hearts once sure—
For homes that time will not restore.
Its bones embrace the empty tide.
The echoes hum in hollow halls,
A dirge of dust, a voice that calls.
The windows weep, the door sighs wide,
Yet no one steps, yet none abide.
The air still tastes of salted past,
Where hands held tight but couldn’t last.
The sea has hands, it pulls, it pleads,
It sings of love, it drowns in need.
But time is cruel and wind won’t wait—
The shore erodes, the hearts abate.
And so we ache for things long gone,
For broken doors and ghostly dawns.
For voices lost, for hearts once sure—
For homes that time will not restore.
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Background: Hiraeth is a Welsh word for a deep, untranslatable longing for a home that no longer exists or never truly was. This poem embodies that ache through the image of an abandoned house by the sea. The house represents a place literal or emotional that once held love but has since been eroded by time. The sea, personified as both a lover and a thief, calls to those who once belonged but can never return. The shifting tides mirror the way nostalgia washes over us, never letting go but never restoring what was lost. The poem ultimately expresses the universal sorrow of yearning for something irretrievable, a home or love that exists only in memory.
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