Krafty Page ChronicleS · Literary Reflection · Issue 3
Love, Memory & the Courage to Look Beyond
An intimate reflection on Agron Shele’s In the End It Is
Reflection by Wanda S.Editorial & Communications Coordinator, KVI Network
A reflection on In the End It Is by Agron Shele, Albanian poet and editor of ATUNIS GALAXY POETRY
Wanda’s literary reflection
When I read Agron Shele’s In the End It Is, I found myself thinking about how a person can move forward while still carrying what mattered. I don’t mean only the end of a relationship. I mean those quiet moments when a familiar place, an ordinary object, or even the evening light reminds us of someone or something we cannot return to. That is what stayed with me after reading this poem.
When an ordinary room holds an extraordinary absence
The overturned table caught my attention first. Maybe because a table is rarely just a piece of furniture. It is where people share meals, talk after a long day, disagree, forgive, or simply sit together without saying much. When that familiar picture changes, the room can feel different even when everything else stays in its place.
I appreciate that Shele does not need to explain everything to make the scene matter. I cannot know the personal story behind his words, and I would not confuse the poem’s speaker with the poet himself. Still, I recognize the feeling he creates. Sometimes it is the ordinary things that bring a change home to us.
The desire to preserve what cannot stand still
I kept returning to the glass, the candle, and the evening light. They seem like small details, yet they made me think about how much we try to hold on to a moment once we realize it is passing. We tell ourselves we will remember it exactly. But time changes the way we see things, even the memories we treasure.
Living among different cultures has made me notice how people keep memories close in different ways. It may be a meal prepared a certain way, a saying passed down in the family, or a conversation someone still remembers years later. I don’t think we all experience loss or change in the same way. But I do think we understand the wish to keep something meaningful from slipping away.
Looking beyond the mirror
The mirror near the end made me stop and think. When we look back, are we seeing what happened, or what we wish had happened? I ask myself that because memory can be comforting, but it does not always show us the whole picture. Sometimes we hold on to the version of a moment that hurts less, or the one that feels easier to explain.
I like that the poem does not hand me a tidy answer. Not every relationship is repaired. Not every question gets answered. And not every ending tells us immediately what we are supposed to learn from it. Sometimes understanding comes later, when we are able to look at the same memory with different eyes.
What remains after the ending?
Even the title, In the End It Is, leaves me wanting to finish the sentence. In the end, it is what? Love? The memory of love? Acceptance? Maybe the answer changes depending on who is reading and what they have lived through. I do not want to decide that answer for anyone, including the poet.
What I take from this poem is a question worth sitting with: when something important changes, what do we carry forward? I think we sometimes focus so much on what we have lost that we overlook what the experience taught us about ourselves. Shele’s poem made me think about that, and I suspect I will return to it with a slightly different answer another day.
About Wanda S.
Wanda S. is KVI Network’s Editorial & Communications Coordinator. With a background in education and social work, she brings a people-centered perspective to literary reflections, often considering how personal experience, relationships, memory, and culture shape what we take from a poem. Her reflections express her own reading of the work, while respecting the poet’s voice.
About the Poet
Agron Shele is an Albanian poet, novelist, and literary editor whose writing has appeared in international literary publications. In a published interview with Setu, he discusses his early love of literature, the images and symbolism that shape his poetry, and his work with ATUNIS in bringing writers from different cultures together. Readers can explore more of his poems and literary background through Verseville. In In the End It Is, his imagery invites Wanda S. to reflect on love, memory, and the meaning we carry forward.
References and further reading
Poem: Agron Shele, In the End It Is, as presented above. Wanda S.’s reflection is her interpretation of its literary imagery.
Author interview: Vatsala Radhakeesoon, “Interview of Agron Shele,” Setu, December 2017.
Selected poetry and biography: “Agron Shele,” Verseville.
More from KVI Network: Krafty Page ChronicleS, Issue 3.
