The Broken Cup of Me - A poem of Disintegration and Determination

The Broken Cup of Me

A Poem of Disintegration and Determination

Introduction:

We have all faced the feeling of erosion in a relationship — the sense that we are becoming less, rather than more. "The Broken Cup of Me" is not just about heartbreak, but about reclaiming the self beyond it. It explores the delicate balance between emptiness and renewal, between grief and the quiet resilience to rebuild.

Written in 1987, revised in 2025 — this poem carries the echoes of heartbreak and the resolve of renewal. It captures the journey from loss to self-reclamation, the fractured self, mended, the void prepared to be filled.

Without you, I am nothing.
With you, I am even less.

Nothing — a cup, hollow and waiting.
Less — a drain, a void, endless and unsatisfied.

I will mend, with hope, the broken cup of me.
Mend it of you.
Set it beneath the open sky,
where rain will come, unbidden and free.

You are my bad dream,
and I —
when with you —
a lyric no voice will ever sing.

Without you, the rain will come.
Without you, the song will rise;
Tears to wash it all away,
Lyric and melody to fill the void.

Without you, the night dream will end.
And in its ending,
the song of me will be sung,
refreshed and retuned.

So, of the choices I have of you,
this choice I now make:

I will remain nothing.

I am nothing,
but I am more, without you.

I am nothing,
but I can be filled.
I can be filled — without you.

Copyright 1987 and 2025 M. W. Van Dyke
All Rights Reserved