A Postcard--To A Former Resident (2016)

  In loving memory of my mother,

  and oldest preceptor,

  Doris Ann Strickland...

  There is nothing stops me missing you--

  Even now, as I feel your spirit continually

  guiding me.

On this evening, there in her letterbox,

   One lonely postcard was left to rest.

And, how I have tried,

   But, I am sorry that I

Have not brought myself to read it just yet.

Because, once she held me on a beach of whiter sand;

   And, to the sand and sea I would love to treat her again--

But, at this time, it is that I'm

   As sorry to say as I am to see

 That it's not at all up to me.

       ***

There was a time, though, on that beach of whiter sands

   When my fingers had never been squeezed by tighter hands--

It's true, I would like to conclude,

   With this little interlude--

And there was a time--A time that I can not remember--

   Likely, it might have been late-September,

When even the ebb-tide, with all its might

   (the very force that made the shore

what it became--which was why we came),

   Still could not separate you from me or me from you.

                                 (let it try)

And, it seemed, in time,

   Nothing fit quite like her old hand in mine--

       ***

And, well, should I return today

   (to that sacred place),

It would not be the same;

   As I am not the same--

And nothing of that boy remains--

And, just as I knew then,

   I have reconciled hence:

That I would not be able to stay...

Reviews

[Margie F]

My heart is heavy for your loss. This poem makes me want to go hug my mother. Isn't that what our job is to do? To awaken all that is important in the hearts of people. Well, one of the jobs as writers. Beautiful poem. I hope you can find a way to celebrate her memory in the sands of the beach. She'll always be holding your hand.

[Wesley Dingler]

That's a great thing Margie. I think you should hug her. Even if you dont care for her, you still owe her in my book. And since this is in my book that's what I'm going by.
I think that anything we do that awakens this sense in a viewer/reader is amazing. Not just as artists but as humans, I think that's what we're here for.
Maybe that's why there are so many of us collectively... maybe.


-wes