in memoriam

[ewein2412]

Carol Saylor Flocken, 31 May 1943 - 16 November 1978

 

I and my mother's mother

walked measuring the tide

two generations from each other

handfast and side by side,

late at night in mid-November

the night my mother died.

 

Mae, my companion's mother,

long winters gone was buried.

They argued, I remember,

when last they were together.

Then a relentless winter;

it snowed through February.

 

From Mae to this November night

leaves my companion stranded

motherless and daughterless. But

should I take her hand

I bind our generations on the

snow-apparelled sand.

 

Alive, alive together

along the future's black

unmemoried, deserted beach

we shoulder up the track

with jubilation at our beck,

disaster at our back.

--------------------------------------


(Four Days Left to Vote for Yohannes, Hero of the Year)

Comments

[estara.livejournal.com]

Voted!

[ewein2412]

thanks, me too!

[estara.livejournal.com]

and again ^^.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Such a voice died far, far too young.

[ewein2412]

actually *I* wrote that... one of several memorial poems. (But I am flattered.)

This, I think, is hers:

song out of last night's dream
laugh out of bursting soap bubbles
love out of candle warming cloud,
I'll come when I am found.

weep by Augusts gone
search by loops of tangled web
think by deep chalk water
and find me when it's fall.

walk with four sad clowns
sleep with nevermind;
wait with soft footprints
and fall will not be long.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Well, a salute to her--but I like yours far, FAR better. Wow.

[ewein2412]

awww shucks. thank you. I am a poet at heart but I only produce one every two years or so, on special occasions.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Poet? This does not surprise me, nope.

[ewein2412]

in some sense the poem is a happy one. It's called "Namesakes"--and, while it pinpoints the bond between me and my grandmother when I was 14, the happy thing about it is that thirty years later we still share that bond.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I would call it poignant, with an infusion of smile...but I have a 95 year old grandmother myself.

[ewein2412]

hooray for the over-nineties!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

:-)

[sovay]

You are extraordinary with words.

[ewein2412]

you are la migglior fabbra.

[mhari.livejournal.com]

*hugs tight*

That is beautiful.

[ewein2412]

thank you, lovely one!

[marguerlucy.livejournal.com]

thank you for sharing, and so beautifully!

[ewein2412]

my pleasure!

This is so beautiful

[(Anonymous)]

I think of you each year at this time . . . ACB