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Friday, September 15, 2023

Why We Tell Stories


1.

We tell stories to re-visit the past,
that halcyon time in Grandma's cottage,
my safe place in the world,
yard full of hollyhocks, weeping willow,
and a routine I could depend on
in a world I did not understand.
In my heart, now, I drift in dream
under the Tree of Remembrance,
in a time long gone,
but always golden,
never forgotten.

2.
Summing up, we recollect old loves, old mistakes;
(cringing, we brush them off, brush them off,
send them to live under the Tree of Forgetfulness.)
Only the one dark-eyed beauty remains,
his blackbird heart, his faltering flight,
like a bird with one wing, longing for,
yet fearing, too, the sky.

3.
I once placed my requests
in the Restaurant of Mistaken Orders.
They came back very different from
what I longed for, and yet, they turned out
to be exactly what I had not known I needed,
pointing me down a path I didn't think
I had the courage to follow, towards more
than I had ever dared to dream.

4.
We tell stories, we write poems:

     to remember
           to remember
                 to remember


Day Four of Wild Writing. Inspired by the poem "Why We Tell Stories" by Lisel Mueller, and by the fact that there is actually a restaurant in Japan called The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders, where all the staff has dementia, and the orders get garbled, but always turn out to be wonderful. I love that!




2 comments:

  1. Sherry we write stories one chapter at a time. I nodded at the tree of forgetfulness. Yes, I think we have all buried stuff at her feet. The restaurant of mistaken orders, just amazing. How many times have my requests been mixed up? Giving me a plate of scrambled eggs. But, sometimes those orders turn into a culinary surprise.

    Yes, we write to remember to leave breadcrumbs of our stories in life.

    Truedessa

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  2. There are so many reasons why we tell stories, and you have captured many of them. I do think such an important reason for writing is to remember. Not so that others may read, but for the poet/ essayist to remember what is important. I love the idea of the Restaurant of Mistaken Orders. Serioudly, I doubt if I would have to courage to go to that restaurant.

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