It’s this day again. It’s come every year since this day nine years ago. An emotionally tough day in this autumnal time of year.
I awaken before dawn. Sleep elusive, memories churning. You cheated death on this day, nine years ago today.
I lie listening to your breath, thankful you are here. Thankful for angels along the way who helped tether you, tether you to earth and me.
This afternoon we will walk meander along the glistening Charles. We’ll scuff leaves with our feet, admire fall’s cacophony of colors and revel in a new day of love.
Photo taken last year along the Charles River in Boston.
Schooldays, schooldays, good old golden rule days . . . familiar words from a song my mother sang to me as she tucked me into bed. Generations later, I sang these words at bedtime to our young children, and then again to their children.
As a septuagenarian, I’ve been entrenched in schooldays from when I went to kindergarten until I rejuvenated (never say retired) in December 2012. Schooldays were part of my life as a student, a parent of school-aged children, a teacher, and finally as a university administrator. Whether we lived in rural Iowa, or a city, August always signaled summer’s end. More importantly for me, it was the harbinger of schooldays to come. Depending on my age, it could mean cutting up brown paper grocery sacks to make textbook covers; or shopping for new crayons, knee socks for my uniform, #2 yellow pencils, new Bic pens and notebooks, or a new sweater set. Later it signaled filling out a new lesson plan book, or noting upcoming meetings in a day planner. At seventy-five, back-to-school ads on television bring back memories of August days gone by.
sweetcorn season done seed corn soon to fill silos school bells ring again
Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today Sanaa is hosting and asks us to write about what August means to us. We can use any poetic form we choose. I decided to write a haibun.
Haibun: a poetic form that includes one or two succint paragraphs of prose followed by a haiku. The prose cannot be fiction. The haiku must include a seasonal reference.
The summers of my privileged youth were filled with riding bicycles with my best friend, June; drinking from the garden hose; drawing hopscotch grids with colored chalk; climbing Mrs. Jester’s apple trees; running through sprinklers in the back yard; and fishing off the Lake Michigan pier with my dad. Once every summer, my mom bought a box of popsicles and doled them out to me and my friends. Everyone else fought over the red ones. I always had the yellow ones to myself. I guess nobody else liked banana.
hot city summer steam hovers over pavement tempers flare, guns pop
Frank is hosting haibun Monday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets. Today he asks us to consider summer. Photos from my childhood, in the early 1950s. Pub opens at 3 PM Boston time. Come join us!
Haibun: one or two paragraphs of succinct prose, usually biographical in nature, followed by a haiku that amplifies the theme, but does not duplicate the prose.
When I think about myself there is a deep brooding. The day hangs heavy no sound falls. I see you, shadows on the wall just beyond my reaching.
Lying, thinking I almost remember when you came to me, unbidden. Your smile, delicate a young body, light, your skin like dawn. We saw beyond our seeming.
One innocent spring it occurs to me now, the dust of ancient pages.
Every line in this poem, is the first line in one of Maya Angelou’s poems. The poems are listed below, in the order of their appearance:
When I Think About Myself My Arkansas Greyday After Thank You, Lord Life Doesn’t Frighten Me Slave Coffle Alone I Almost Remember When You Come to Me Woman Me To Beat the Child Was Bad Enough Passing Time We Saw Beyond Our Seeming Now Long Ago Changing Communication II: The Student
Rain drops glisten daffodil petals. Forsythia blooms in Mrs. Jester’s yard. Buttery yarn disappears from hank, chain-stitched and double-crocheted by arthritic fingers on blue-veined hands. Children with yellow chalk-smudged cheeks squat on sidewalk squares. Round smiling sun in place, they draw happy flowers below.
Written for NAPOWRIMO, Day 18 and dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe: both prompts coincide nicely in this poem.
It’s Quadrille Monday at dVerse. The word to put in our poem of exactly 44 words (sans title) is “chalk” and the pub opens at 3 PM Boston time.
The NAPOWRIMO prompt is to “write a poem that provides five answers to the same question – without ever specifically identifying the question that is being answered.” The question I’ve answered is “What are yellow things you might see in the spring? My answers are daffodils, forsythia, yarn, chalk-smudged cheeks, and the sun.Photo is from Pixabay.com
** I grew up in Waukegan, Illinois. The house I lived in from the time I was two until I went into third grade was at 144 South Butrick Street. Mrs. Jester was our elderly next door neighbor.
Our lives are made of moments, some plain, some filled with awe. Looking back I was surprised how many included sipping through a straw!
My mother showed me how to sip orange juice to go with grahams; Then coca cola and ice cream sodas helped make me who I am. Chocolate milkshakes, creamy and thick should be against the law. The memories sweet, of all those times sipping through a straw.
In college I learned about Scotch Mists, served with straws black and thin; As were those Mai Tai’s with rum and gardenias that almost did me in. Anything sipped through a straw was yummy. To me a special treat, Until the memories of hospital stays I do not wish to repeat.
When your lips are cracked, your mouth is dry and your body feels so raw There is no better thing the nurses can bring than water to sip through a straw. It’s funny the things that come to mind; the adventures, the things you saw. My life’s special moments have often come when sipping through a straw.
Straws is written by Lindsey Ein: wonderful writer, wonderful friend, and mother to our dear son-in-law. She shared this poem with dVerse LIVE on Thursday – I’m just a bit late posting it.
Every time I see them it creates an image in the present which in seconds or hours or a day or years, depending on recall, is always in my past.
We gathered to honor the matriarch. From Texas, Illinois, California, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Carolina, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Virginia too.
She was the rock, the foundation. Granddaughter of Swedish immigrants, upholding the traditions. Her life, lived for so many.
A career in nursing, a ministry of sorts. She offered healing to the afflicted. From surgical assistance to the elderly’s pains, to the scrapes of school-age youth.
She taught her children compassion. Lessons passed on to grandchildren and their children. To nieces, extended family, friends and neighbors too.
She faced the depths of loss and pain, courageous and resilient. Sustained by faith in God and love of life, she taught us even through her death.
Family gathered to pray, to sing, to share a meal. Tears and smiles comingled. Yesterday’s emotional today, so filled with love and caring support. That is the essence of this family, what we share and treasure most.
Those moments of yesterday’s today, far too quickly in our past. But still they give us hope and strength, to face all of our coming tomorrows.
Written in memory of Janice Stewart. The family gathered on Saturday, December 11th at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Wheaton, Illinois to celebrate her life. She will be missed by so many.
PHOTOS: Hjalmer Hallberg immigrated from Sweden. He and his wife, Anna, settled in Chicago, Illinois. The photo on the left shows their five grandchildren. From left to right: George Hallberg, Nancy Jahnke, Lynne Gehrke, Janice Stewart, Donald Hallberg. Neil Netherton, Nancy’s brother, passed away many years ago. He was Hjalmer and Anna’s sixth grandchild. The second photo was taken immediately following the celebration of Janice’s life at St. Paul’s Churchon Saturday, December 11th.
Brother’s cardboard Santa. Crayoned red suit and black boots, thinning cotton-puff beard and cuffs. His first grade art project crafted near eighty years ago.
You three sleep eternally warmed in earth’s loving arms. But each holiday season you live with me again, if only atop my Christmas tree.
Merril hosts Tuesday Poetics at dVerse, the virtual pub for global poets. Her prompt for today: “write about any object – a family heirloom, a museum piece, a monument, or a palace. The choice is yours, but there must be some link to history and the past.” The bell and airplane are 90+ years old.
Friday night and the lights are low. Tinseltown dimmed, marquees dark, Broadway shut down. Performers encased at home, mouths agape. No words. No melodies. No sound escapes their parched lips. Feet stilled, faces bare. They sit, not in the wings, but on couches and chairs. No audience. Just the cat curled up on their feet, surprised to find this comfort in these hours. The night the music died and the curtain fell, subways ground to a halt. This, the night Covid came to town.
Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today I’m hosting Tuesday Poetics and delving into Sweden’s musical archives. I’m asking folks to include one line, and one line only, from the lyrics of ABBA’s Dancing Queen. The line must be used word for word within the body of the poem. You can find the lyrics to Dancing Queen, as well as some fun information about ABBA, in my prompt at dVerse. Pub opens at 3 PM Boston time and full prompt will appear then.Image from Pixabay.com
lillian the home poet 