Best Childhoodbeauty Poems
ALONG THE ROAD OF LIFE I CARRY WITH ME MEMORIES
Recollected childhood trips seem an intensely hot affair.
We took a bus, tight-filled with sweaty people’s feet
For hours; but then at the end, there was air.
And gone were the constriction and glaring heat -
In the tranquil cool shade of the springtime wood.
There were spreading red campions and more -
In places where a little sun shimmered and could
Make yellow pools on the woodland floor.
And everywhere the fairy bluebells all
Nodding in crowds blue and thronging.
In life I carry with me and oft recall
That day, the happiness, the feeling of belonging.
I picked armfuls hoping to preserve their beauty till later,
Wrapping them in wet cloth in a water-pail
To survive the torrid heat of the bus-incinerator,
Unaware that their happy lives I would thus curtail.
An intensely-lived child-experience does not diminish,
But telescopes into a longer event, perhaps with fairies,
Sometimes without any definite finish.
Tiny spaces can morph into prairies.
Maybe the bluebells were just there in some garden to find ,
But I did see them somewhere, and I really made the trip,
I really smelled them. They were not just a dream in my mind :
And for years after, I wanted to relive their friendship.
But trying to recapture childhood memory
Is like trying to preserve beauty a-flowering
By picking it for a collection in a repository.
Its beauty is gone with the garnering.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Written for Paula Swanson's Contest "I Carry With Me"
Statuesque, graceful beauty dancing with joy
Porcelain glazed skin and delicate features
Southern belle of the ball, your day has passed
Dandy boys desire your loving affections
Porcelain glazed skin and delicate features
Strong of will to take this life by the hand
Dandy boys desire your loving affections
Ready for action, a survivor to behold
Strong of will to take this life by the hand
Southern belle of the ball your day has passed
Ready for action, a survivor to behold
Statuesque, graceful beauty dancing with joy!
For the Pantoum contest, Thanks for the challenge!
This was chosen to be published.