Diapers, bedtime stories,
Christmas stockings.
Driving them to lessons,
reading report cards.
Wound up like a top
I whizzed through the arcane.
Now in my golden years
I think back and realize.
I should have paid more mind.
The arcane was indeed
the miraculous.
Written for Quadrille Monday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today I’m hosting and ask people to include the word “wound” or a form of the word in a poem of exactly 44 words, sans title. Notice that “wound” is a homograph. There are two pronunciations and each has a different meaning: He suffered a wound in battle. VS She is wound up like a top. Folks are free to use either pronunciation/meaning or both! If using both, their poem must still consist of exactly 44 words, not including the title.
Photos are of our children who are now 45 and 46! And yes that’s me, about forty years ago!
lillian the home poet 
Lill, the sentiments you expressed are shared with me today! I, too, look back on those days and wish I’d been more focused on them rather than job, housework, etc. you expressed this perfectly! Love the pictures! ❤️ Nancy
Sent from my iPhone
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So nice to see you here!! I figured you’d love the pics….HOW do they grow up so fast? And isn’t that the truth…all those moments we didn’t realize were so precious…just the little things.
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And I’m sure they appreciate it, still.
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Thank you, Ken. Just spent a long weekend with our son (now 45) and his family….we’d not seen them for 16+ months because of the pandemic. Believe me, I treasured every moment! 🙂
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I think the reward is that for a child, those days seemed endless… but this is what happens with every generation.
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Exactly. The cycle of life. There is a saying many a parent hears: “Enjoy them now….they grow up so fast.” and it is all too true!
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I think I need to pay attention to this Lillian! Sometimes the joy of everyday just passes by unnoticed. I do try and linger in the moment every now and then, while I still can!
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Oh yes! And take lots and lots of pictures and videos! We didn’t have videos when our children were young…how I wish we did! 🙂 I must say, I so enjoyed Benji reading the poem about his cat….his eyes just sparkled and his lip curled up in a delicious smile…He is indeed a cutie! And a talented one at that! 🙂
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Thank you Lillian! I make my favourite photos into albums every year: it’s a mammoth task but worth it, I think 😊 Benji is about to become a published poet 🤩
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Gorgeous then, and gorgeous still, my dearest Lillian 💝 this is such a heartfelt and poignant write. As parents, we do the best that we can to provide for our kids.. even though.. sometimes we aren’t able to spend much time with them. Both my parents had jobs when I was young .. so I can relate to this poem. 🙂
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The saying, it’s the quality of time more than the quantity of time is a good one. It’s just that sometimes, in those very arcane moments of time with our children….we don’t at the time realize how precious they are. I think this pandemic, taking away the ability to visit with our relatives and close friends, has made us realize how precious hugs are! 😉
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Nice. It’s amazing what we fondly remember as the good times.
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Exactly! And at the time, we simply thought of them as chores sometimes.
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Oh Lillian, such heartfelt and true words you have gathered and shared. Express what so many of us are in the midst of recognizing and understanding. Thank you. All my best.
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So glad you enjoyed this one Johanna. Bjorn made the comment that each generation goes through this….and I suspect in some ways he’s right. I’m reminded of the phrase I heard a number of time when our children were young — “Enjoy every minute because they grow up so fast.” And wow is that true. I think young parents today are gifted with the ability to take videos on their phones and save them in the “cloud”…how I wish we had videos of the first bath…the first puffing on a dried dandelion….etc.
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Those moments do seem to go so quickly, but it is also fun to press “rewind” in our heads and remember them.
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Oh yes indeed. I love getting out the old photographs of our kids when they were little. Then I look at the ones of myself my mother gave me and I somehow wish I had memories of these very very early days. Three of my four grandparents died when I was very young so I have no memory of them….just photos. I wish often I could remember them 🙂
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I understand. Both of my grandmothers died when I was very young, so I don’t remember them,
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You said it very well. They really do grow up so fast! And often we are so busy and distracted with life that we sometimes miss all that is happening. !
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Exactly! I wish I’d said, let the housework slide and just color with the kids today instead! 🙂
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Now you can color with the grandchildren.
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Lillian, my most immediate and sincere reaction to this is: Awwwww….
❤
David
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Right back at ya! 🙂 I can tend to get a little sickly sweet when thinking about motherhood etc. I guess the trick is to be poignant but not too.
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Bravo, nice on Lillian
Happy Monday
Much💚love
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Thank you! 🙂
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All of it …. every bit of it … our lives. Your poem touched me.
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Thank you, Helen. I’m so glad you liked it. 🙂
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Great photos, and what wise words. The drudgery of every day sometimes feels thick, but there is still so much to enjoy in each of my little ones smiles.
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Exactly!
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such a really fine family memory
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Thank you, Larry.
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my two little rascal are in their twenties and would flip if i shared the pics of them when younger. i would not have swapped the time i had with them as they grew up for anything else.
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Your comment made me smile. 🙂 My kids don’t read my blog….so pics are safe here 🙂
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Those were good years and memories. And the photos are priceless.
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Thank you, Grace! 🙂
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very nicely rewound, Lillian!
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Hah! That’s what photos do right….rewind our memories to times gone by. 🙂
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It’s a wake-up call to realize all of the little things were really the big things. With pandemic effect keeping us from our loved ones more, the trips down memory land can be even more poignant.
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I so agree! And boy do I appreciate hugs now!
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Though I cannot personally relate in this instance, I know that this is a very common experience!
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It is indeed. 🙂
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So true, Lillian! Those mundane moments collect memories to cherish.
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Exactly!
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Each small moment, is the miraculous, inside the journey. I look back smiling.
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Yes! This is why I love taking out my children’s baby books…full of writings about what they did, photos, first steps, etc.
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This made me wish for reruns of all the wonderful times in my life before I forget them. Beautifully written reminder to savor every moment Lillian ☺️💕
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What a lovely comment to read this morning. Thank you Christine!
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I can feel the sentimental emotions in this piece. Nicely done.
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Thank you!
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This was beautiful. Really resonated with me, as I am learning to appreciate these little moments in motherhood that will soon fade away. Thank you! 🙂
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Motherhood continues….I just turned 74 and yes, I am still a mother. But those times when they are young….so many wonderful memories. I wish we’d had cell phones in the days when we raised our children….they are now 45 and 46. I would have made many videos of just normal things…bath time, child sleeping….dinner table etc. We have photos but to see them moving and hear their voices before they grew up….that would be priceless to watch and listen to now. 🙂 They do indeed grow up quickly.
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Thank you for sharing this wisdom. ❤
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I love the photos, Lill, and the sentiment in your quadrille. I often look at photos from Ellen’s childhood and wish I could go back and, in my case, do it better. It wasn’t easy bringing her up, for the largest part, on my own. Bedtime stories and Christmas were some of the highlights.
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I am certain you were a wonderful, are a wonderful, mother! After writing this….I thought about how lucky young parents are now to have the ability to just pick up their phone and videotape their child….sleeping…eating…jumping…talking. Didn’t have that when my kids were young. I cherish the photos and the memories. But oh how fun it would be to hear them talking as toddlers, kindergartners…perhaps a quick video of them talking to mark each year of their young lives. My oldest grandson will be 15 in September. Thankfully they live only about a 40 minute drive away and so we’ve seen him, his sister (13), my daughter and her wonderful husband, about 6 times over this Covid year. Suddenly his voice has changed and he has a faint shadow of a mustache coming above his upper lip!!! Oh my!!! And his sister is looking very grown up too! How quickly they change in these developing ages and to have Covid rob us of those visits…cruel indeed. But we are all healthy….we are now all vaccinated….so may we get a new normalcy soon!
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I agree, Sherry. I would have loved recordings of Ellen when she was little.
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Tunnel Wound
A tunneled wound
Left to fester
Oozing, painful
Will not heal
Dig down deep
Remove the poison
All the ache
One cannot feel
Clean it up
Expose to air
Refreshing breezes
Left a scab
A scar
White with time
Marks a growth
But concealed
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An excellent poem. I wish more on dVerse would get the chance to read it. Do you have a blog? If so, you could post it there and link it to Mr. Linky on the dVerse prompt page. If you don’t have a blog and enjoy writing poetry and seeing poetry prompts, I urge you to create a blog so more can see your writing 🙂 WordPress has a very easy tutorial to create your own blog. Trust me, if I could do it, anyone can. Hope you will!
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Thank you, Lillian! I just returned to WordPress and got back into an account I made back in 2014. Finding I have a lot more time now to create. Is my WordPress account a “blog” or do I need to do something else? I’m such a newbie!
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If you have a WordPress account, that’s your blog. Place to post your poems. How did you use it in 2014? You may want to change the look of it etc. Go to Mr Linky at end of my prompt (https://dVerse poets.com) and click on it. You’ll find about 50 posts to the prompt from people around the globe. They are all posting on their blogs and then linking here. Many use WordPress like I do. You can see all the different looks of them. If you Google WordPress tutorial, it will help you design your site/blog. You already have an account so you can just get started! 😊
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Oh Lillian, you’ve captured this so well. My eldest, is now within months of turning 40, and my youngest 18 months behind him. Your words have me feeling the passage of time in the same vein. I look at the walking, smart aleck adult miracles called my children, but I swear college graduation was just yesterday, the broken wrist as a teen was week, the school boys whining about homework was last month. Hell I just brought my second new born him home the hospital last year!
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Your reply made me smile. Where in heavens’ name does the time go? People used to say to me “Enjoy this time…they grow up so fast” and I’d smile, and say “oh don’t I know it” while I was trying to cram a toddler into a snow suit, thinking about the grocery list, and trying to corral the one who was just 19 months older into not taking off her boots! 🙂 I truly wish we’d had cell phones in those days….oh I know the foibles and dangers of social media and bullying etc these days. But the idea of being able to use my phone to video tape my kids when they were little….asleep in their crib…then the big girl/boy bed…eating with a spoon for the first time….singing a song in kindergarten etc. I have lots of photos which I treasure…but to hear their voices and see them as little again…what a treasure that would be!
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Such heartfelt sentiments!
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I know what you mean about missing moments. I don’t know if you’re there yet, But maybe there will be time to make up for that with the grand children🙂. l know I’m looking forward to that.
Pat
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Splendid, sentimental, a moment from the past, breathed with renewed life as it itself rejuvenates your soul. What a comfort, what a nostalgic recollection.
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Such truth in your poem. Lovely to read in the comments that you got to finally see some of your family. Covid has made that so hard. We had tickets booked to go home to New Zealand to finally meet my sister’s youngest, but are now still waiting almost a year later.
The cliché warnings are so true 😅. Mine are only 8 and 11, but whenever I watch a little toddler playing, I become so nostalgic and wonder where the years went. But I am also enjoying watching them develop and learn and grow now.
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I love this poem! I, too, am a mother of adult children. So many pictures of them all around the house and scrapbooks and photo albums everywhere. We get so busy as moms when the kids are little and then so busy again taking them to all the games, concerts, etc. as they get older. Looking back, it’s those sacred, ordinary moments that we remember. Watching a spider or catching frogs on a warm day or maybe just putting a Band-Aid on a scrape. I’m enjoying being a Nana because I have so much more time now to say YES, I’ll play with you!
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Beautiful sentiments in this piece, and a wise reminder to slow down and see the magic. Thank you, and thanks for hosting
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Always good advice to stop and feel the moment.
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