Groups of people, in black-and-white or sepia colour, are here portrayed
by the camera, posing for posterity. All are in their best clothes arrayed.
Bearded men, all with tall hats, coats, pipe-stem trousers, white shirts
and Adam’s-apple-pinching celluloid collars, gaze solemnly down.
Although they vary in age, all the women wear their hair up in a bun.
Garbed in waist-hugging gowns, modestly buttoned up to the neck,
leg-o’-mutton sleeves, and lace or flounces on shoe-length skirts,
solemn-faced pioneer women pose for their portrait to be done.
For the early settlers this would have been one of life’s special occasions,
undertaken because expected of them by the conventions of their time,
in commemoration of an important event for their future generations.
But now every tableau of early settlers is speckled by age and grime.
On distempered walls old paintings in oils, now crackled by decay,
are no longer hanging resplendent in once-ornately-gilded frames.
Like the images of pioneers and watercolours from another day,
their origins concealed by time, very few reveal artists’ names.
In glass cases, displayed amidst trinkets on a mildewed velvet tray,
lie gold wedding rings engraved with time-obscured inscriptions.
On one homely cottage table a mishmash of artifacts in disarray
vies with bric-a-brac no longer bright, defying of descriptions.
Here and there, with motley collections arranged along each wall,
is a bust of some once-famous man or an unknown ancient god.
Wormy rows of hide-bound volumes venerate the rise and fall
of some ancient civilizations, for centuries beneath the sod.
Among images and relics of once-valued, vanished glories,
are remnants from times long ago that have special tales to tell.
But few who enter this musty shop care to learn about these stories.
Changing times bring changing customs and other goods to buy or sell.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Meeting with Miss Peach
This afternoon Pyewacket and I went on a journey to visit Miss Peach and her mom for afternoon tea.
We had Belgian cookies, and a delicious cup of tea and we were shown around the beautiful cottage. We took a photograph to remember the lovely time we had.
I'd like to dedicate this poem to the two of them with my appreciation.
My Gift to You
Chance makes a poet, so by chance
a poet I would be,
and send my verse, like Eros' lance,
to strike and pleasure thee.
I'll make such rhymes for thee, will start
sweet bells a-chiming in thy heart:
be beautiful as mountain spring,
or, light as spinning foam will bring
a moments pleasure then depart.
My soul would soar to heights sublime,
so let each ballad ring
with all the bards of ancient time,
and minstrelsy, to sing.
If then these songs delight thee, dear,
suffice they must for me:
one moment's joy unto thine ear,
then gone from memory.
We had Belgian cookies, and a delicious cup of tea and we were shown around the beautiful cottage. We took a photograph to remember the lovely time we had.
I'd like to dedicate this poem to the two of them with my appreciation.
My Gift to You
Chance makes a poet, so by chance
a poet I would be,
and send my verse, like Eros' lance,
to strike and pleasure thee.
I'll make such rhymes for thee, will start
sweet bells a-chiming in thy heart:
be beautiful as mountain spring,
or, light as spinning foam will bring
a moments pleasure then depart.
My soul would soar to heights sublime,
so let each ballad ring
with all the bards of ancient time,
and minstrelsy, to sing.
If then these songs delight thee, dear,
suffice they must for me:
one moment's joy unto thine ear,
then gone from memory.
Childhood Visions and Age Old Dreams
(The Bible: Joel 2-28, Acts 2 -16,17)
I was crying, for my friend had died when she and I were five.
Mother told me life often is sad, but with age I would realise
Nature’s plan is that all life on Earth will, with time, grow and thrive,
and devised in this plan is that each form of life also dies.
With my chin thrust well out, and my head held erect,
I stood shouting defiance, through tears, to reject
any plans for my own demise.
But observing the sequence of life has shown me,
wistful dreaming of times long ago many old people do,
is as common to age as youth’s visions of times yet to be.
I recall matchbox boats and their pipe-cleaner passengers, who
were sent racing down gutters fast-flowing by rain.
They sailed over a waterfall, down into the drain,
and forever were lost to our view.
As I aged, I found laughter dispelled gloomy thoughts of mortality,
and my smiles could help others ignore what such visions imply.
Years of practice empowered me to smile with alacrity,
as I once, as a vain little girl, smiled at all passers-by,
and in shop-windows too. People smile back at me, it is true.
So while grave faces brighten when I’m passing through,
I shall strive to retain my smile.
I was crying, for my friend had died when she and I were five.
Mother told me life often is sad, but with age I would realise
Nature’s plan is that all life on Earth will, with time, grow and thrive,
and devised in this plan is that each form of life also dies.
With my chin thrust well out, and my head held erect,
I stood shouting defiance, through tears, to reject
any plans for my own demise.
But observing the sequence of life has shown me,
wistful dreaming of times long ago many old people do,
is as common to age as youth’s visions of times yet to be.
I recall matchbox boats and their pipe-cleaner passengers, who
were sent racing down gutters fast-flowing by rain.
They sailed over a waterfall, down into the drain,
and forever were lost to our view.
As I aged, I found laughter dispelled gloomy thoughts of mortality,
and my smiles could help others ignore what such visions imply.
Years of practice empowered me to smile with alacrity,
as I once, as a vain little girl, smiled at all passers-by,
and in shop-windows too. People smile back at me, it is true.
So while grave faces brighten when I’m passing through,
I shall strive to retain my smile.
Thoughts on Life
As I come here before you, my thoughts to impart,
I must beg your forbearance, most gentle of heart.
Please to contemplate kindly, as on me you look,
and dismiss not my writing as gobbledegook.
To humanity Nature exhibits two mirrors:
One depicts all life’s pleasures, the other its horrors.
We see sometimes a bowl of ripe cherries – delightful!
And at others a bowl filled with pits – truly frightful!
Life is tragedy-comedy. Sorrow and mirth
are inherent, and programmed in each human birth.
Without darkness we never could appreciate light,
and we need culpability to recognize right.
Sadly, humankind knows that all life ends in time,
and now I, with time’s passage, am well past my prime.
While aware of strength waning as my end time draws near,
correspondingly, life grows increasingly dear.
Oh! Alas! As with dustmen, we all of us must
become, in time’s consequence, familiar with dust.
Which is better than having forborne to exist,
when we’d probably never have known what we missed.
So experience teaches: Enjoy while you may
all the good things of life, as they happen your way.
When you look in life’s looking-glass, smile as you do.
Even try for a laugh – it will come back to you.
I must beg your forbearance, most gentle of heart.
Please to contemplate kindly, as on me you look,
and dismiss not my writing as gobbledegook.
To humanity Nature exhibits two mirrors:
One depicts all life’s pleasures, the other its horrors.
We see sometimes a bowl of ripe cherries – delightful!
And at others a bowl filled with pits – truly frightful!
Life is tragedy-comedy. Sorrow and mirth
are inherent, and programmed in each human birth.
Without darkness we never could appreciate light,
and we need culpability to recognize right.
Sadly, humankind knows that all life ends in time,
and now I, with time’s passage, am well past my prime.
While aware of strength waning as my end time draws near,
correspondingly, life grows increasingly dear.
Oh! Alas! As with dustmen, we all of us must
become, in time’s consequence, familiar with dust.
Which is better than having forborne to exist,
when we’d probably never have known what we missed.
So experience teaches: Enjoy while you may
all the good things of life, as they happen your way.
When you look in life’s looking-glass, smile as you do.
Even try for a laugh – it will come back to you.
University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales
(In 1979, Aged 56 and without a car)
Winter in New England is enjoyable when you
have lovely warm fires, to stand back to.
But when I’m trudging through sludge, methinks
such frigid weather really stinks.
I readily admit no Stoic am I, nor a Spartan yet.
Walking with ice-cold feet, I simply fret.
My dripping nose grows rosy; my hands turn blue;
and my disposition suffers, too.
Although I’m walking all bundled up from head to toe,
the wind-chill factor simply never lets go.
I long for mid-winter’s break, as that is the time
when I go to pass a few weeks in a warmer clime.
New England flowers prettily in springtime,
all the deciduous trees are colourful in fall.
To walk in the park is so pleasant in summertime,
or to sit with friends, ‘neath shade trees in the mall.
Oh, Armidale is beautiful in springtime,
and it’s so exhilarating walking in the fall.
But living here is easiest in summertime,
and when Uni.’s out that’s the very best time of all.
Winter in New England is enjoyable when you
have lovely warm fires, to stand back to.
But when I’m trudging through sludge, methinks
such frigid weather really stinks.
I readily admit no Stoic am I, nor a Spartan yet.
Walking with ice-cold feet, I simply fret.
My dripping nose grows rosy; my hands turn blue;
and my disposition suffers, too.
Although I’m walking all bundled up from head to toe,
the wind-chill factor simply never lets go.
I long for mid-winter’s break, as that is the time
when I go to pass a few weeks in a warmer clime.
New England flowers prettily in springtime,
all the deciduous trees are colourful in fall.
To walk in the park is so pleasant in summertime,
or to sit with friends, ‘neath shade trees in the mall.
Oh, Armidale is beautiful in springtime,
and it’s so exhilarating walking in the fall.
But living here is easiest in summertime,
and when Uni.’s out that’s the very best time of all.
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