Thursday, May 23, 2019

Summer's End




The film is grainy,
the one that shows me
and my small sister
walking along tall rows of corn,
then sitting, her in front of me,
bareback on the big old horse.
My dad is smiling,
mopping his brow,
in the Okanagan heat,
my mother, in white shorts
and sleeveless white blouse,
is forever, now, hoeing
along the rows,
helping the water trickle
across the thirsty roots.

My father died that summer,
suddenly, of heart and summer heat.
The last Christmas of
my mother's life,
we watched the film again,
and she cried and cried
for those lost glory days
among the corn,
and all that would be lost
by summer's end.


for Marian's prompt at Real Toads: Summer's End. The John Prine video showing a child among the cornstalks reminded me of a long ago corn patch and a definitive summer when I was just fourteen. Also sharing with the Poetry Pantry at Poets United, fine reading every Sunday morning.


33 comments:

  1. Nice photos of your mother and father, Sherry. Seems like your dad was a dog lover too. Smiles. Ah, those old memories. It is nice to have those photos/films and those memories preserved in poetry.

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  2. Oh Sherry, this is so touching. Those remembrances of our parents, and the dogs too. Makes me think of mine, but I won't bore you. You told this so well, thank you for letting us know them a bit.
    ..

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  3. A comment you can remove or I will. Thank you for peeking in on me last night, I felt rescued. I was down, nobody loved me until you came by.
    And too, you aren't linked to Mr. Linky this morning?
    ..

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  4. Thanks for letting me know, Jim. I thought i had linked it, so i just did now, rather late. I was bussing yesterday, am at my sister's farm, so a bit out of the loop. But enjoying dogs and horses to the max. Smiles.

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  5. It gives me chills to think of how the words of songs and poems can so touch on our shared human experiences. This is such a moving piece, Sherry.

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  6. Beautifully told, Sherry, with just the right mix of detail and restraint to be both sad and heart-warming.

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  7. I echo Kerry's applause -- so moving -- so finely wrought. It's timeless as an old Irish folksong. The harvest and how it reaps us.

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  8. Oh my goodness, Sherry. I adore this slice of life and the sepia photos. I always feel that sepia just makes everything washed in melancholy. Which of course I court. :) I love the thought of the rows of corn, and honestly, that it was "heart and summer heat" really got me. xo

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  9. It is interesting, how those people we love, in photos will forever be doing what it was they were captured doing. Wow, an interesting thought. Perhaps it is the photos, of my Son, when he was young, still I have not looked at those photos for fear, I will loss the images in my heart...that will be there forever....bare feet padding along the sandy beach, fishing, the little back dog at his heels, and so much more.

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  10. It is hard to look at those photos when our kids were small.....such a rich but fleeting time.

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  11. This is really one of the most moving piece of poetry written to this prompt... really love the memory and how you used it to tell your story and how it goes back through time...

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  12. This sort of writing can bring back the memories, wide-scree, full colour.

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  13. Such a tender tribute..sad and yet full of love

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  14. I have a penchant for old photos and your poem is a fabulous photo portrait of your family, Sherry. We were never filmed as a family, so most of my early memories evoked from photography are static, so I love that you have a film of you and your sister walking and riding. I also love that your parents are not posing but doing normal, everyday things, that you remember them doing. I also like the way the break between stanzas reflects the breaking of your heart at losing your parents.

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  15. When we read books we are eager to read a new chapter but in our own lives those chapters are often filled with grief. This is a beautiful moving recollection of a chapter of your life Sherry.

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  16. There is always so much more to be seen... when we look back. I really like the perspective of this poem.

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  17. Beautiful poem filled with life's realities of love and loss. Thank you, Sherry...

    Elizabeth
    https://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/2009/01/24/bear-seasons/

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  18. The life you gave back to the photos was lovely and moving. The eternity before grief and then the count of years afterward were striking.

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  19. Whoever said grief fades with time didn't know entirely what they were talking about. I saw a very good description of it as coming in waves that sometimes we can ride, and sometimes pull us under, but it always comes ebbs and flows for the rest of our lives.

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  20. This is incredibly moving, Sherry! I always feel that sepia gives rise to nostalgia as we walk down memory lane. My heart goes out to you.

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  21. this is very moving....it amazes me how people bond...so completely...so beautiful and so painful all in one breath...but let us thank the great spirit that we as humans can experience such beauty...bkm

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  22. old photographs of our loved ones always bring back memories, sad or otherwise.
    your poem is very moving, and tender.

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  23. Oh, such a beautiful poignant end. I could picture every scene you painted with your words Sherry.

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  24. Glory days frozen in the film of your poetry, so poignant, so sad, yet so tender and telling.
    Happy you dropped by my sumie Sundag today Sherry

    Much💙love

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  25. So many emotions arise when I look at old photos. Sometimes (like your mother in the poem), I weep, but sometimes I laugh. It all depends...

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  26. Back for another visit of this moving poem.

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  27. Marking time by pictures always gets me. I can see your mother as if I just met her in between the corn rows. She and they fed somebody.

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  28. The opening line on this piece is really beautiful, Sherry. It is of course, metaphorical, but also, haunting and nuanced and poignant - and becomes, more so, as the poem unfolds. The whole poem cascades from that line and, I think, really goes full circle back to it with the close: 'all that would be lost
    by summer's end'. I found myself visualizing the reality and richness of that long ago summer slowly pixelating to fade.

    A lovely bit of writing.

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  29. This really tugged at my heart, Sherry. I'm glad you guys always had each other.

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  30. and all that would be lost
    by summer's end... that is a heart wrenching close....

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  31. Sad but lovely memories of your parents and childhood.

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  32. I adore everything about this poem! It stretches the heart with contentment and sadness - your descriptions and the mood set here is... sublime. (not sure I've ever used that word before!)

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