Thursday, December 11, 2008

songs my mother gave me?

I decided that, for my mother's side of the family, I may put together a group of my poetry, about my mother, and her passing, and give them to my aunts, uncles, and grandparents. I think they will appreciate the sentiment, and something tells me it might help some of them push through and do the moving on that is so necessary in times like this. I plan on titling my collection "Songs my mother gave me," cliche as it sounds, only because I hammered out the following introductory poem (and I welcome constructive critique - is the meaning clear? does the metaphor work?). It is slightly cheesy, perhaps, but I think it serves its purpose, and my family will appreciate it:

To the Reader:

The time to sing is now -
Our grief slowly lifting, the tears painted over
with all the smiling faces of those she left behind;
It's true, she's gone - but
when the time comes, we could all lament
that we, too, were plucked early from this life,
forgetting that the most important purpose for us here
is simply teaching other people how to sing.
And my mother, she taught me many songs.
These are songs my mother gave me.

2 comments:

j. doloris said...

you're back!

i like the last few lines of this poem a whole lot. I think you could work on the first part; the ideas are there, the images are there, but their words could be distilled to give a sharper idea. if you use the normal words in the normal order, we lose the real vision.

please don't stop this; i have had such an emotional revival being able to read your fresh and difficult poetry again.

Lauren said...

Oo i'm so excited I found your blog, Paulie! XOXO