We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage / And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, / We Poets of the proud old lineage / Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why ... (James Elroy Flecker)

27.3.18

A Homecoming


For the (fictional) series "Edges"
His Voice 
A Homecoming

I was just a whelp
when we first came here,
the best part of fifty years ago.

Can I sever
this old man from the child
I was then, tasting heaven here?

My daily bread
suddenly became manna.
I still wish we'd never left.

Now that I've found again
the exact blend of elements
in unchanged perfection –

there is also terror.
It's the same I felt then
when we went away, lost from here.

I send up prayers
to a God I no longer believe in.
"Let me stay. Let me keep it this time."

-
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23 comments:

  1. Unknown27 March 2018 at 12:31

    i cant say i've grown fond of him, he seems quite melancholy

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  2. Sumana Roy12 August 2018 at 01:37

    "My daily bread
    suddenly became manna."....A wonderful part of a life's journey when fairy tale happens. A lovely poem.

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  3. Mary12 August 2018 at 03:54

    Not sure I understand this one. Not sure where the "here" is that the narrator mentions. Seems like there is a return, but am not sure why they left...nor who this old man really is & why the terror. I wish I understood more.

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    Replies
    1. Rosemary Nissen-Wade12 August 2018 at 14:15

      A bit hard when the poems are read separately, with gaps of time between them! Eventually I'll put them into a chapbook.

      This is the same man whose voice has already been heard in this series, in the same 'here'. But for both people we are only finding out snippets of their respective pasts bit by bit through their own reminiscences, and only as they impact their present lives and feelings.

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  4. Sherry Blue Sky12 August 2018 at 08:49

    "Let me keep it this time." I so completely resonate with those words, each day a prayer of gratitude for me. This is a very interesting series, Rosemary. Intriguing voices.

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  5. Anmol (HA)12 August 2018 at 17:16

    Oh, letting go is terrifying for the best of us. And to have found that similar elemental value in one's surroundings makes one over-protective. That is the nature of life as well as our thoughts, which want to savor this manna for as long as it lasts.
    Emotive and sweet!
    -HA

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  6. Jae Rose12 August 2018 at 18:07

    I love the mystery in this piece and the pleading end line.. haunting write

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  7. Sanaa Rizvi12 August 2018 at 18:47

    "My daily bread suddenly became manna. I still wish we'd never left".. sigh.. this is incredibly evocative, Rosemary 💞

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  8. Rommy12 August 2018 at 20:16

    Some childhood memories don't lose their power to tug hard at us, no matter how old we get.

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  9. Old Egg12 August 2018 at 21:43

    It sounds as though childhood memories have had such an impact on the narrator as to colour his whole life. This is devastating because he clearly has not been allowed to grow in his own potential self. As you say reading the whole is something one day we can look forward to.

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  10. Jim Tee12 August 2018 at 22:02

    this was beautiful. thanks for sharing it.

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  11. Susan12 August 2018 at 22:14

    "Let me stay. Let me keep it this time."
    Tears. My dad is lost in time and I hope this is where he is.

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  12. Laura Bloomsbury12 August 2018 at 23:45

    so many excellent lines Rosemary, filled with longing and losing and finding
    "the exact blend of elements
    in unchanged perfection "

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  13. annell412 August 2018 at 23:57

    I look forward to your chapbook.

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  14. Magaly Guerrero13 August 2018 at 00:46

    I can't say I blame him. Every now and again, it would be nice to just be able to keep the good and bright and lovely... and never learning the terrible.

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  15. Purba chakraborty13 August 2018 at 01:34

    Beautiful poem. Loved the lines, "My daily bread
    suddenly became manna.
    I still wish we'd never left."

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  16. C. Sandlin13 August 2018 at 02:41

    The line about severing child from man reads differently each time I read this, like a kaleidoscope, which seems to fit with his own reading of what he's experiencing :)

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  17. Kim M. Russell13 August 2018 at 04:21

    I have that trouble, severing the old from the young me.
    I wonder if we can ever find again:
    'the exact blend of elements
    in unchanged perfection'
    and escape old terrors from the past.

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  18. Wendy Bourke13 August 2018 at 07:17

    Wonderful images - impressions that encapsulate some of what it is to be human, so beautifully - and cascade to a powerful close.

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  19. kaykuala13 August 2018 at 14:22

    Now that I've found again
    the exact blend of elements
    in unchanged perfection

    It is most satisfying Rosemary, to be aware of similar circumstances and to be brought back to experience them again!

    Hank

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  20. dsnake113 August 2018 at 17:35

    yes, old places you know are not just places. they are character, they are you. great lines, Rosemary. :)

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  21. Vivian Zems14 August 2018 at 04:18



    Love the entreaty at the end; a heartfelt cry.

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