When and Where Was I Happiest?

Let’s see. I  could say, any and every time 

I was near the sea – the magical ocean.

Or when I rose on tiptoe

to sniff deeply of a rose from my father’s

beautifully tended bushes.

Or when the moon shone full and bright

through my bedroom window

and I would stay awake 

to moon over pen and paper, gazing

out at the night sky and making poems. 

It might have been before I was four,

for that was when my dear, kind Nana died.

So much colour and warmth

faded from my life then – the kind

only she could give. That death cost me dear.

All these memories from childhood….

It’s fair, too, to say

that after I fare-welled infancy

to have one of my own, 

I thought I’d won the lottery! (I still do.)

His father’s blue eyes shone with joy.

(The First-born's and mine are green-brown hazel.)

I felt so green, so raw, so unprepared –

but I delved into the mine of my own

good memories to unearth what was needed.

When and where was I happiest?

If it’s a riddle, I give in.

There’s no one answer. Each

of these occasions, and many more,

give me happiness over and over again.

The NaPoWriMo prompt for this day asked us to respond to one of a collection of 'Proust Questions.' I chose the one that is the title of my poem. (What could be nicer than going over one's moments of happiness in memory?)

The Poem A Day prompt is to use homonyms. Explanation: ''A homonym is either (or both) a homograph (word spelled the same with different meanings and possibly different pronunciations) or a homophone (word that is pronounced the same but has different spellings).'