It's Poetry Friday, and Tracey Kiff-Judson is hosting HERE on her blog, Tangles & Tales for Poetry Friday. She is sharing a delightful history overview of Monopoly pieces, the changes and, perhaps, what it means when you chose one of the pieces as a favorite, plus, a poem about one. Be sure to check this post! Thanks, Tracey! I couldn't turn the calendar pages with you last week because I was still having Christmas! My son and family couldn't make it until after the new year so all of us had our holiday together last weekend. It was wonderful and over all too fast!
So, I'm sharing a poem I wrote a while ago which I take out every year to remember the old times and to inspire me to start again, writing and keeping the days in my own notebook! I cobbled together words from a diary of my husband's paternal grandmother, Lora, (husband, Roy) for my year's beginning poem, her days!
On the inside cover, she wrote: Be a lamplighter. We shall shine as the stars of the morning.
Remember Rainer Rilke's words: "Now let us welcome the new year, full of things that have never been." Wishing each of you a Happy 2024!
Wow! What an interesting compilation! It makes me feel like my life is pretty easy without having to mend fences and render lard. It is fun to imagine what a life with those types of activities might have been like. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYes, some of us do have it a lot easier, Tracey! Nor do we even know how! Thanks!
DeleteLinda, this whole post is stunning. I love the journal, the lamplighter quotation and how you gave words another life in this poem. I've struggled to put my Grandmother's letters into a poem. But, this is a fantastic mentor text! I will use your idea with my Grandmother's words (which by themselves are not very exciting). Thank you SO MUCH! I look forward to sharing it with you someday.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Linda. If this offers a way 'in' for you and your own grandmother's words, that's terrific! I look forward to reading them.
DeleteWhat a full life! I enjoyed all the detail that filled her days. She seemed to be a person who loved making things, connecting with loved ones. I love that she left such a lovely record.
ReplyDeleteThey kept busy with many things we don't do, right? But farmers continue with some of them. Thanks, Janice!
DeleteI think Roy worked hard that year. -- This is such a fascinating step into history, Linda!
ReplyDeleteWhat terrific choices of details...those homely, domestic details that make up a year...that make up our lives. Glad you had a lovely late Christmas. Happy New Year, Linda!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Patricia & Laura. Though I often spoke with my own grandmothers about their lives, it was fascinating to read Grandmother Lora's diary. I love that she wrote she was 'living a poem'.
ReplyDeleteWhat a treasure to have this time capsule!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Marcie, I agree! : )
DeleteI love this poem so much. I feel like that could have been my Grandmother Clara's voice! What a life. What beautiful ordinary lives we all live.
ReplyDeleteSeems as though some of your grandmother’s stardust of living a poem shines through you Linda, thanks for sharing some of the richness of their lives via your poem!
ReplyDeleteI love the quote Lora included in her diary. What a treasure you have made of her words! Thanks so much for sharing and for taking me back to thoughts of my own grandmother.
ReplyDeleteLinda, how wonderful that you had that old diary and that you could do something so creative with it. What a neat connection with the past.
ReplyDeleteOh, Linda, I love this. ❤️ Lora was indeed living a poem. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your comments. I love that you enjoyed Lora's words!
ReplyDeleteLinda, I am so sorry I visited late but this weekend was my middle granddaughter's 4th birthday party. I helped prepare the Teddy Bear Tea Party that was just wonderful. I tried to keep up with reading posts but it was just too busy. Now to discuss your post. I love the nostalgia and the idea of making a poem by looking at each calendar month. The opening quote is a light unto itself: "We shall shine as the stars of the morning." Stepping back into time, I feel the ease of living "simple" and appreciating ordinary events. There is no sense of hustle and bustle in this poem that makes it quite appealing. I am glad that you celebrated with family, even though it was not a Christmas Day. Being together is important. Happy January to you.
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