Moving On

Cherry

By Silver Spun Sand

Sat, 30 May 2015
  • 6013 reads
16 comments
 
All that ‘stuff’, squirreled over the years...
gathering dust in the attic; 
 
time to pack it all up in a cardboard box...
time for moving on.
 
Christmas tree baubles – some shine like gold.
 
Others – broken, or tarnished; a Bakelite monkey 
sans tail.  Throw them away?  No, never.
 
A stash of letters – postmarked Southampton, 
tied with a blue, satin bow; that three week course, 
seemed like three years, he went on – aeons ago, 
when he and I were seventeen...
 
Birthday cards – bought and unwritten; 
pretty pictures, nowhere to go.
 
A pile of sheet music – Debussy’s ‘Clair de Lune’...
‘Girl with the Flaxen Hair’, and she did have –
that beautiful daughter, mine...
 
the one who played it, all of the time...
 
a sprig of dried olive leaves from that place,
wherein beneath, she soundly sleeps.
 
Time to pack it all up, in a cardboard box...
time for moving on...or so we try
to kid ourselves.
 
 
Certificate PG
Poem
Silver Spun Sand Poems
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)
Autobiography

Comments

Submitted by Mark Say on

Lovely poem Silver. I like the way you convey the sense that we might try to concentrate our memories in objects that can then be discarded, but that we can never really do so. Short, bitter sweet and quite moving.

One little point: I think you lose the comma in 'dried, olive leaves' as it breaks the rhythm of the verse. Otherwise extremely good.

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Thanks, so very much, Mark...comma gonesmiley

 

Submitted by Starfish Girl on

Lovely Tina.

So much feeling packed into a small space.

Just before he died I bought my father a Yorkie bar, he never did eat it and it stopped in my mother's fridge for ages. Then one day she said you'd better eat it. I took it home and it stayed in the back of the cupboard for years. I did eventually throw it away but only after numerous other attempts to do so.

Lindy

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Lindy, I have missed you of late, so I was thrilled you stopped by today and took the trouble to read this and comment, so touchingly.  That is a beautiful story about your Dad, and I am sure most of us will be able to identify  with the sentiment behind it.  

I wish you a peaceful weekend, and thanks once again for your words.

Tina

 

Submitted by Art of the Diver on

Hi Tina,

As always a very worthwhile read, rightfully emphasised with cherries rather than the damming effect of a life breath unnecesarily stolen by a comma... lovely

Rob

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Hello, Rob.  Good of you to read and comment so positively on this.  I am so heartened you found it worth the while, and told me in such an eloquent way.  More than appreciatedsmiley

Tina

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

Another one of yours that brings the tears to my eyes, possibly because I have my own beautiful daughter.  And I've got one of those little piles of letters.  You forge such direct connections with the reader.  A gift of a poem.

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Such kind words, af, and I really do appreciate them.  Cherish that wonderful daughter of yourssmiley

Tina

 

Submitted by VeraClark on

Who'd have thought a few things could be so moving? This is. You've captured that loop I find myself in, quite panicky sometimes, when I realise 'I can't ever go back.' There's a cruelty in the things we inherit or collect, you can almost taste the skin of them or that way the sunlight fell on some long ago day or the love in faces round a Christmas table. It's all there in this and it's matter of fact, not syrupy or sentimental. Fab IP.

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

How well you put it, Vera, '...the way the sunlight fell on some long ago day...'  Just wonderful.  

Tinasmiley

 

Submitted by loquaciousicity on

Poignant... great write!

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

My thanks to you, Terry.

Tina

 

Submitted by Bee on

We can't move on - that's why we can't let go of stuff when others can. I often wonder about that.

Bee

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

You are exactly right there, Bee.

Tina

 

Submitted by Shannan on

Us modern 'young' lot have traipsed all over and not 'settled down'... and even through the continents, I have still managed to accumulate 'stuff', despite leaving things behind in my university dorm, Taiwan, England and Johannesburg! 

Accumulation of stuff... I always wonder why I need it so much... but the answer is never a good one, so I ignore it and don't pack up the stuff ;-)

Keep well 

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

So great to hear from you Shannan, and as for all that 'stuff', yep, it just keeps on growing...young or old, we're all the same, as you so beautifully say.

All the best to you, and many thanks for popping by..

Tina