This is excellent Cassie - I will try to come back later and comment more fully!

Hi Cassie - back as promised!
First off, lovely to see a new poem from you!

I love the first stanza - and it rhymes!
No secrets hidden here - right from the off, the reader is under no illusion as to the theme of this poem - sadness and melancholy, painted wonderfully here with all four lines of this stanza. The idea of wishing you were a ghost - invisible to the world and its "ills"; a "spectre (love that word) who could just leave everyone behind who you've had enough of. I've felt like that a few times!

The imagery and flow of the second stanza is superb and here it really does begin to get more taut and personal - especially with the introduction of "cold steel" - ominous indeed. "The lure for peace for aching heart" - a very powerful line. Great stanza.

What a great metaphor in stanza three - "a shadow at the feast life". I love the imagery that this conjures. And the sad statement of casting aside the "toils of love".

I think four is so far the hardest hitting of stanzas; let's face it, any description of a bloodied and ruined heart is never one for happy images. It hits hard as it's meant to and is highly effective here. And here we are told of the problems: dreams shattered and broken promises.

Heartbreaking fifth stanza - a wistful ponder on this broken love being more fulfilling and happier in another time and place. How many times do people wonder what could have been? Could it have worked if....? Your mind really can get lost in a maze of possibilities....unfortunately, they do not help in the long run.

Then the final stanza. A blunt and highly efficient start - a slamming back down to earth after the almost dreamy penultimate stanza. "But I dwell in the here and now". And an acknowledgement of how powerless you are to change or bring into effect what "might have been", so the "silvered edge" is the "kind" option - to simply put you out of your misery.

A brilliant write, Cassie, full of wonderful description, delivered with a wonderful flow.

All the best
Ben

Will nominate Monday - am out of votes at the moment!

Brilliant poem Cassie.

The expresion of turning into a ghost and floating away seems so appealing. How many times one feels just that, to escape the never ending disappointments.
And as always the reality pulls you back into the now and how of life.
To survive one just has to make believe and look for that silver edge.

How well you have presented the upheavals of life and how a brave heart returns to face the reality.

Thank you Cassie.

This is so powerful Cassie! I can feel the loneliness and pain inside your heart in this one, the title is amazing and really emphasises the pain the soul feels when it feels lonely, like it doesn't have a place to belong on this earth.

You have really went into detail of the pain your heart has experienced, and suffered with, and how it has left your mind in this turmoil of never seeing anything brighter than the darkness.

Amazingly powerful piece, I really related to this one.
Well done