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Ah, September.
I love this month...the clear, crisp skies make my heart sing. The school supplies are still fresh and new and learning is on the agenda. Like so many educators, this time of year is my true New Year celebration.
I love this quote attributed to Virginia Woolf.
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| found on facebook |
Patricia offered, Life at the speed of grace, as a Spiritual Journey Prompt last year. I'm sharing my response to Mary Lee's challenge to the Inklings which was to write to the poem, Next Time by Joyce Sulphen.
Sulphen's original poem has a positive tone. I struggled to write the phrase, next time, from being one of deeper personal regret. I wrote a poem...discarded it. Wrote a second poem...discarded that one too. This third poem is more wistful. Wistful is more positive and lovely to me than the angst of regret.
It wasn't until seeing (by looking at an old calendar and thinking it was from THIS year. OOOOPS!) Patricia's Prompt, though, that I had a title. I'm not sure the title makes sense if you are a grammarian. I am not. I'm taking meaning from the words in a looser way that fits this poem.
Grace, Past Perfect
Next time, I’ll be good at math.
I’ll remember the order of operations to add, subtract, multiply and divide
more time for us.
I won’t rush through homework I’ll enjoy learning without my intricate schemes of getting out of it.
I’ll read aloud to you –all the poetry that doesn’t rhyme the gorgeous images we’ll paint in our minds.
I’ll find ways to enjoy
weeding your giant garden
a farmer’s acreage, really
–remember the deer
meandering in to nibble green beans and lettuce?
But I’ll be decades away
poking fingers into dirt
under my suburban kitchen window
with your grandkids
chatting about how many days until
we can eat beans
from the seeds we're planting.
I will remember all the steps
of how to sew a hem, a button,
a zipper. I’ll still buy my clothes
but I won’t throw away
what I can mend.
I’ll be better tending relationships.
I now know can’t last forever–In fact,
I’m calling my sisters right now.
I won’t even have to say
I’ve been thinking of you.
Linda Mitchell --draft
If you happen to be reading this on Friday, make sure you hop over to Buffy Silverman's blog for the weekly Poetry Friday round-up. Buffy is one of my favorite nature writers. You won't want to miss her work!
I've got more shined up clunkers to share. These are from comments left at my annual Clunker Exchange Post. Anytime I could use my OLW '24, WORLD, in a poem, I posted to the padlet of WORLD poems I'm keeping for this year. Find refurbished clunkers from:
Connect to more Inkling responses to Next Time:
Mary Lee Hahn @ A(nother) Year of Reading
Catherine Flynn @ Reading to the Core
Molly Hogan @ Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret Simon @ Reflections on the Teche
Heidi Mordhorst @ my juicy little universe
I saw speed and had to come and read your post Linda, for I'm working at the speed of light still and for a while to come with my new class. But ah, to welcome Life at the Speed of Grace, I'll look forward to her… Gorgeous poem, love all and these lines ring out, "the gorgeous images
ReplyDeletewe’ll paint in our minds." Good for dreaming too, thanks!
Linda, welcome back. I hope Grace brought you blessings this summer. Congratulations on your poem that won a honorable mention. "We’ll paint in our minds." This is a beautiful way to celebrate a new transition.
ReplyDeleteThat title is PERFECT! Bravo. And I love how your poem meanders away from the trivial (math/homework) and straight into the heart of the poem -- relationships. Mending and tending, sowing and sewing. Family. Mothers.
ReplyDeleteThat "Grace, Past Perfect" must have had you shouting "That's It!", Linda. And the thoughts of "next time" immediately started in my mind. I so enjoyed all your "mending" and especially the loving end. Glad you've had a great school beginning!
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what exactly past perfect means but it definitely is a perfect title for your poem. I, like you, would take the next time prompt to a full list of personal regrets and self-flagellation. The wistful tone you found in this revision, the details that go homework avoidance to tending the garden of those you love, is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteLinda! June seems like ages ago and just yesterday! I love the Virigina Woolf quote. It makes me appreciate September even more. Your poem creates such lovely images. It calls to mind a picture book that I just read, “Small Things Mended.” : )
ReplyDeleteI completely forgot about Spiritual Thursday. I love how you wove the posts together. Maybe I can do that. Your poem is so...you! Wistful, yet wise.
ReplyDeleteOh my...yes, wistful and gorgeous, Linda... I really love "I'll be decades away..." What a beautiful reflection on wanting to be grace-filled.
ReplyDeleteWe were on exactly the same wavelength for this challenge, Linda. I love all the details you've woven into this poem of love and grace.
ReplyDeleteThis is so lovely, Linda. You've effortlessly incorporated details that pull us back and forth through time. That ending stanza with the line " I won't even have to say/I've been thinking of you" brought tears to my eyes. There's such a richness of connection pulsing through your poem.
ReplyDeleteOh, Linda--I feel like generally I know less about your extended family than others in our group, and now I know a lot, revealed line by line--both the breadth of the acreage and the depth of the dirt. Pure emotion, beautifully crafted.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it's been years since I was a student, I still share that feeling of September being the real start of the new year - a time of fresh starts and new beginnings.
ReplyDelete"Wistful" is a word that is often on the tip of my tongue, but I have to scroll through "poignant" and other words to get to it... Love your poem, especially the last few lines. And this one is gorgeous:
ReplyDelete"remember the deer/meandering in to nibble green beans and lettuce?"
Oh, that Woolf quote! ❤️ You've written a wistful, beautiful poem, Linda, deftly acknowledging that those times in the past were somewhat inevitable, but the foundations — the relationships — were always there. Perfect title.
ReplyDelete