Monday, October 8, 2012

PLEASE KEEP YOUR SEAT-BELT FASTENED AT ALL TIMES














Taking the memoir journey
has proved an unexpectedly rough road-trip
With some piercing insights rustling to the fore
and exploding with unbearable ease
From beneath a brittle crust
long constructed around my psyche

However recalling actual travels
with my family
—after circumstances necessitated the sale
of our summer cottage—
Those trips wear a patina, a charm that memory
kindly gives to the past
Sheathing those years as if protectively
Like placing fine crystal in tissue
before stowing it for safe-keeping

In a dream, I am laying beneath a weeping
willow weeping
There is a bit of a wind blowing - no - not a wind
A breeze - barely enough to move the long fronds
of the willow; I am in a fever to keep from waking
I know if I awake there will be no fixing anything
No mending the past, no use in looking ahead...
Did I mention taking the memoir journey has been
an unexpectedly rough road trip?

9 comments:

  1. Crystal wrapped on tissue paper / willows weeping weep / sweet innocence that would rather sleep/ WOW - love the framing -a gorgeous evocative picture that has me unable to look away from the pain in order to never lose the beauty behind closed eyes / sleeping in the heart a rough ride indeed - but so worthy a journey :) beautiful

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  2. Love the title, Sharon...and the little argument the writer has with herself over wind/breeze. Also love the idea of trips wearing patina. Beautiful.

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  3. Enjoyed this piece very much, particularly like the idea of "if I awake there will be no fixing anything - No mending the past..."

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  4. May the piercing insights be worth the trip. Growth hurts. This poem is beautiful. I love the dream image as contrast to the rest. Lovely write!

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  5. I enjoyed the dreamy quality to this, the insistence upon avoiding being fully awake, though being fully awake is the only real way to move past our histories. May your journey be worth the pain of the memories.

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  6. smiles...as we look back, we see through the lens of now on those times....the good, the bad...but it all got us here....hard though to step back into some of those moments....this i know...

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  7. Very nicely worded, Sharon...I love the idea that the psyche has a crust...I feel that's true...

    I love this:

    "Those trips wear a patina, a charm that memory
    kindly gives to the past"

    that is just lovely and the following idea of crystal, too.

    This is stunning all in all!

    Smiles to you Sharon!

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  8. Lovely writing. I know how those memoir journeys can cause an ache - almost equally for the beautiful memories as the painful ones. Times long gone. The repetition at the end really works well here.

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  9. Thanks so much all for coming, reading and commenting ... your insights are, as always spot-on ... As much as I am enjoying the memoir writing, I am being honest when I say it's also difficult at times, sometimes almost unbearably so. Thanks for understanding that.

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