Get Your Premium Membership

Forgotten Field of Forever

Forgotten field of forever - I knew you once . . .
in daffodil days when I wandered in wisteria ways.
Sprightly I skipped and rarely tripped. 
Hope really did spring  eternal then
 in the spring of my strawberry youth.

Dahlia daydreams drifted often like dandelion fluff
through the corridors of my mind - a mind not yet tainted by
taxing times inevitably to come as faster and faster 
I would speed along my path of life.

Like a gamboling lamb, fresh, frisky and free-spirited,
I faced my own little fun and frivolous world.
Hardly was I heedful of the woes of those
forced to fight in foreign fields across the ocean,
in a nation where peace was hardly known.
In killing fields the most innocent of citizens 
were pawns of a futile war. Such things did not enter
my pre-teen mind. I was but a child.

Sachet sweet were my springs
and sassy sassafras my summers.
In back-to-school autumnal afternoons
I fled home to fields of happy play,
never with a thought given to the heartache of mothers
whose soldier sons were lost to bullets or bombs.

 I sleepwalked cluelessly through a decade of war
far removed from me as I played games of pretend
with equally clueless friends.
Blissfully we skipped our ropes and chattered merrily
 like monkeys in the school yard.
So innocent was I then that barely can I bring back
those sun-filled daffodil days to my recollection.
In too short time, my grand little dreams of long ago
wafted upward to a cumulus of forgetfulness.

No more do I lay myself down in grass
to look up at diamond-studded skies
or drift into slumber with visions of the visages
of my juvenile crushes while cheesy 60’s love songs 
linger softly on my radio. Those faraway times are
as forgotten as the lives that vanished in Nam.
They can only belong to the forgotten field of forever.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2024




Post Comments

Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.

Please Login to post a comment

Date: 8/11/2025 9:11:00 AM
Dear Andrea, I enjoyed your amazing, wistful, nostalgic verse that so skillfully contrasts innocence of childhood and wickedness of war. Your stunning verse "In killing fields the most innocent of citizens/were pawns of a futile war" took me to Cambodia and "heartache of mothers/whose soldier sons were lost to bullets or bombs" took me to Viet Nam and the memory of a friend's cousin who died there. Though I was aware of the war (thanks to my dad having the nightly news on) I was so much like you during that time. Your poem is beautifully and achingly expressed both in the virtues and evils of the time. Congrats for your success in Mark's contest. Warmest wishes.. ~Susan
Login to Reply
Date: 8/10/2025 12:46:00 AM
Congratulations poetess on your win in this contest with a lovely poem on the joys of the days of youth at a dark time when so many countrymen lost lives in a long lingering war which in the end proved to be futile. It is, however, becoming of you to bring to memory those days. Wising you good health, which is so precious.
Login to Reply
Date: 8/9/2025 7:06:00 AM
This is beautifully penned Andrea a huge congratulations
Login to Reply
Date: 8/9/2025 4:58:00 AM
Hi Andrea Congratulations on your 3rd place a fitting winner Reflective and filked with innocence of youth amid the Vietnam war and grieving mothers I enjoyed your poem Cheers Christine
Login to Reply
Date: 8/8/2025 12:18:00 PM
Andrea, congratulations on your third-place win on Mile 4 of my 2025 Poetry Marathon Contest. You took me back to the 60s and my “Forgotten Field of Forever.” Nicely done. Keep your running shoes on, because Mile 5 has already started.
Login to Reply
Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 8/9/2025 2:18:00 PM
Thanks so much
Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 8/9/2025 9:22:00 AM
thanks so much. I have a Lot of poems for you, just never quite sure what you are going to really like the most@
Date: 8/7/2025 11:14:00 PM
I think this will work beautifully, the imagery more than appeals, it touches and resonates. Emotions ricochet everywhere, most poetically. There are some minor things I sent a soup mail about and they may exist only because my brain is drained, it's 2:13 am. The contest has closed, we may both be shot tomorrow OR not. Love, CayCay
Login to Reply
Date: 5/15/2024 4:50:00 PM
You take us on a journey through the 1960's, which was filled with revolutions and wars, your reflections bring a sense of sorrow for those lost in "forgotten fields of forever", Well penned
Login to Reply
Date: 5/4/2024 2:13:00 AM
Encapsulates unmarred innocence as a forgotten field of forever. Ah the nostalgia.
Login to Reply
Date: 5/2/2024 11:47:00 AM
Congratulations on your win. I enjoyed reading this wonderful write. Have a fun day with your win...............
Login to Reply
Date: 5/1/2024 3:53:00 PM
Congratulations on your win!
Login to Reply
Date: 5/1/2024 11:41:00 AM
One of your best poems I have read.. so many adjectives.. Congratulations on your first place in the contest..
Login to Reply
Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 5/1/2024 12:32:00 PM
wow, thanks, Silent One
Date: 4/23/2024 10:41:00 AM
Tonally, like a "stream of consciousness" and as unrelenting as a clocks' tic. The metaphorical character associations with the insistent, attentive force of flowers to a childs' mind, in contrast with the horrific and senseless loss of life to warfare in the period, calls each to repentance if, we too, were mere 'chattering monkeys' in that day.
Login to Reply
Date: 4/19/2024 4:48:00 PM
So gentle and beautiful, Andrea. I especially love your 3 opening lines and your title. I loved the sixties music, too. There is always a war somewhere, it seems. Every generation.
Login to Reply
Date: 4/19/2024 10:41:00 AM
Those long carefree days are gone and some days we wish to go back in time. Wow to this poem Andrea. Well done. love phyl
Login to Reply
Date: 4/16/2024 6:01:00 PM
Once again, a spectacularly haunting title. Huzzah, Gershon
Login to Reply
Date: 4/16/2024 6:34:00 AM
Wonderfully ruminating in echoes of memories, Andrea. Your ornate descriptions shine in your poetic prowess. Splendidly done!
Login to Reply
Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 4/16/2024 9:18:00 AM
Thanks, Vijay
Date: 4/16/2024 2:49:00 AM
Wow sweet andrea! Youv really nailed it! I think silent one will love this, the opening lines are so captivating and i love those alliterations and use of flowers! Especially dahlia, as thats his fave flower! And i love the way youv written “ I sleepwalked cluelessly through a decade of war far removed from me as I played games of pretend with equally clueless friends“ i can resonate with that really! “ No more do I lay myself down in grass to look up at diamond-studded skies” excellent diction. This deserves a fave! And best wishes for the contest! I just posted mine too for his contest. Sending you light always
Login to Reply
Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 4/16/2024 9:18:00 AM
thanks, Ink, I was trying to use your "style" in some parts of this. Hopefully I somewhat succeeded!
Date: 4/16/2024 12:22:00 AM
Yes, things are so very different now. It would be lovely to have carefree days. Beautifully written.
Login to Reply
Date: 4/16/2024 12:08:00 AM
Those carefree days long behind us, we hadn't a care in the world back then but as we get older and wiser we see the world in a different light. Tom
Login to Reply

Book: Reflection on the Important Things