Today's poem grew out of an interlude Phyllis and I enjoyed in celebration of our golden wedding anniversary ... thanks to the generosity of our family ...
What a wonderful interlude it was. I don't want to spoil the moment by dissecting the poem ... please, just read it ... and I hope, as you do, you hear the gentle clop-clop-clop of those horses.
Originally published in Plainsongs:
STAYING AT HAAN'S
It was as though we had escaped to another
age, back to a time before TV or radio,
when news came to us from ships gliding
surely, softly up to the gull-laden docks,
when bicycles roamed the streets carrying
stacks of luggage, a forgotten letter, a loaf
of freshly-baked bread, a time of lovers
pedaling slowly past, oblivious of all else.
It was a time in the embrace of silence
like it was meant to be, not even the distant
drone of engines, the clamoring of the hurried,
a silence through which the clop-clop-clop
of horses came drifting in the night, a lullaby
reassuring to those unaccustomed to such
an absolute absence of the clutter of noise.
© 2005
***
Today's word:
interludeAfterthoughts ... in response to your comments:
I'm glad you caught the mood of that interlude, Hechan ... and that it brought back memories ... mostly good, I hope ... for you. I know, from your comment, that the poem is working ... and what a great feeling that is. And I don't mind the word "nice" at all ... has a nice sound, I think ... and it has the feel of an electronic pat on the back. Felt good ... and I thank you for it.
1 comment:
Nice picture and poem...rather an insipid word, "nice" but they both...the picture and the poem. are very comfortable. The verbal pictures come with a dream and feeling...I want to be in that picture perfect place--and have a few times. Among the other places it reminds me of when I stayed with my granparents on the farm now and then...when one of my brother was sick--and that was often. My whole family would have loved your poetry...and I do, every day. Since I'm not a poet, I can't comment on a structural or technical level...just a "feeling" one. I know why the pictures are good, but just know the poetry is, and not always why it is--and don't really care.
I do love other people's comments and I know they feel and enjoy it. I guess some people don't always talk as much as I do. I try not to, but you pull it out. Helen
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