You Are No More...

Cherry

By Silver Spun Sand

Wed, 07 Jan 2015
  • 2603 reads
8 comments
 
You are no more in the Christmas roses – 
not in those Helleborus as you chose to call them...
not in their weeping, wilted heads, no more
than you are in the sketch you would have
drawn of them.
 
Not in the lake – nor in its silence of blue light
nor the frown-brown corduroy hills 
that, before you were ill, we two 
would have climbed.
 
whom I scrubbed down in our kitchen sink... so grubby,
and yet so tiny you hadn’t yet learned how  to crawl;
then teaching you to swim. Noticing how blue 
your lips got when you were cold.
 
No more shall I listen to you play piano; 
All Creatures Great and Small – hearing
you stumble – same part of the score
every time...
 
You, who are no more, no less, than a memory now;
not one that fades – one grows stronger every day, 
of the one I hugged dry with a towel...cupped their face
in my hands sitting on the sand by a rock-pool...
head, shouldered and shy...
 
the rush of the tide coming in...
a guillemot and her day old chicks; 
the shriek of a mother’s final,
frantic call.
Certificate 12
Poem
Silver Spun Sand Poems
Spiritual
Biography
Love

Comments

Submitted by Sooz006 on

Wow!

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Thanks for that more than enthusiastic response, Sooz.smiley

Tina

 

Submitted by Bee on

This first stanza is amazingly deep and - the 'no more than you are in the sketch you would have drawn of them.'  is so strong I can't stop thinking about it. To not be in something you never got to do is the most less there of possibility - too me, if that makes sense - except in the ever growing strength of memory...

'the one I hugged dry with a towel...cupped their face
in my hands sitting on the sand by a rock-pool...
head, shouldered and shy..' - heartbreakingly beautiful images I can relate to. And 'the shriek of a mothers final, frantic call.' says it all. 

i bet if you listen hard enough, you can hear that 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' being played on the piano. Reading this wonderfully crafted poem, I can. 

Bee

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Bee - thank you for those words.  They mean a lot to me. You always have a wonderfully enlightening way of putting things...obviously the writer in yousmiley

As for that tune it was the signature tune, and the title of a TV series back in the  seventies, eighties and nineties, based on the books of the British veterinary surgeon, Alf Wight who wrote under the pseudonym of James Herriott.  The series was so very popular, and the tune my daughter loved, so I bought her the sheet music.  

So pleased you got so much from this and took the trouble to share your thoughts.

Tina 

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

You have such an ability to draw these linked garlands of memories, joining the poignant with the fun, and encouraging others I think to realise something of what is involved in any child growing up if the parent can have eyes and patience to watch, appreciate and store up those memories.

same part of the score every time... brought back memories to me ['why don't you slow down just there until you've got it smoothed out?' not that I could play it anyway!]
Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Thanks so much, Rhiannon.  Your words - precious, and I am so grateful.  I'm glad too that you found i evocative in as much as music lessons were concerned.  I think we're all the same. I know I was with my piano pieces.  I think somehow the pattern of the notes as we play, either wrong or right ones, kind of get imprinted on our brains, and if we play a passage wrongly enough times, unfortunately, we seem to be stuck with itsmiley

Have a peaceful Friday, Rhiannon.

Tina

 

Submitted by Stephen Thom on

i read this yesterday and thought that words can't express, to give feedback on it...wouldnt do it justice...the beauty and humanity and hearbreak it conveys is remarkable. wonderful words, as ever 

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Thanks, Stephen, for all that one word means, and much moresmiley It's always special when you drop by, and I really do mean that.

Tina