|
Notices |
It's been a while, Unregistered -- Welcome back to Eratosphere! |
|
05-21-2022, 02:13 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Ellan Vannin
Posts: 3,342
|
|
Acumen 103
This appears, with one of my poems in it, for which I'm very thankful. I don't think I workshopped it here, for some reason. Perhaps it appeared during my sabbatical.
Here it is, anyway, for anyone that's interested ...
Out of the past
This is the doubtful hour. Shapes start
to flow into each other. Shades
creep out from under trees, where they've
avoided the dogmatic sun
all day, to gather with their friends.
This is the time of day when things
are seen to be believed. The light,
more diffident, obliquer, drops
its flat insistence on who's who
and joins us in the masquerade.
Now, if ever, I will meet
my father in his Sunday best,
with the light behind him, walking
out of those old photographs,
their cracked duns and ochres,
or - more disheveled - looking shyly
over his shoulder as he backs
a tractor out of some tight spot,
tinkering with a motor-bike
or posing with a euphonium
we never saw, likewise the bike;
nor do we recognise this farmhouse
with its sycamores and sorry
garden, or this pretty girl
who sits, smiling, in a hedge.
|
05-21-2022, 02:23 PM
|
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Old South Wales (UK)
Posts: 6,682
|
|
A lovely poem and a prestigious placing. Great stuff.
|
05-21-2022, 03:04 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Apr 2022
Location: St. Petersburg, Russia
Posts: 1,610
|
|
This is just what I wanted to read this evening, David! I love how the concrete images in the last three stanzas are attenuated by “if ever,” “we never saw,” “nor do we recognise.” I did puzzle a bit over “are seen to be believed.” Could it be that if someone actually sees what “has to be seen to be believed,” then they see it to believe it?
|
05-21-2022, 03:10 PM
|
|
Moderator
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2018
Location: UK
Posts: 1,687
|
|
Woohoo! That is a brilliant poem, David (it really is, it's evocative and lets me see people through the images, and is full of that aching sense of the hopes and dreams of the past).
And I agree with Ann, too. What a lovely venue to be published in!
Sarah-Jane
|
05-21-2022, 03:57 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: TX
Posts: 6,630
|
|
Just to join the chorus of praise. Molodets!
Thanks for posting that poem, David, it really was a treat to read, and what a gentle and generous homage to your father while you are at it. In his Sunday best.
A sidebar - I am intrigued by the girl in the hedge. I see you with old photos before you as you write.
Cheers,
John
|
05-22-2022, 02:09 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Ellan Vannin
Posts: 3,342
|
|
Thanks Annie, Carl, Sarah-Jane and John.
Yes, it's good to be accepted by Acumen. This is not my first time, but it's always good. (It is still a relative rarity.)
Cheers
David
|
05-28-2022, 12:33 PM
|
Member
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 6,271
|
|
A very good poem, David. It connects.
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Login
Forum Statistics:
Forum Members: 8,404
Total Threads: 21,899
Total Posts: 271,479
There are 5314 users
currently browsing forums.
Forum Sponsor:
|
|
|
|
|
|