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jemmie, I feel the love and cannot thank you enough. What a love fest.
Fathers and Mothers should never die, just go on long extended vacations, sending post cards periodically, to ease us all into the idea of their not returning, I think. Thank you for liking and understanding my poem.
posted by
benzinha
on March 12, 2004 at 1:54 PM
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One of the many reasons I love you...
is because of poems like this one. You are a beautiful person!
Please go read this (if you haven't already)!
posted by
Jemmie211
on March 12, 2004 at 12:48 PM
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desertsong, I lost you for awhile there, shall read u again!!!! Thanks.
posted by
benzinha
on March 10, 2004 at 1:06 AM
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Abuelita
Your poem, and your soul are yet beautiful....
posted by
desertsong
on March 9, 2004 at 10:24 AM
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sassy, I wrote the poem to cry over. It helps to cry every few years, remem
-bering the joy and love and pain, again. I never knew my grandfather very well, he lived so far away and didn't like kids much, so I am jealous of your bond with yours. You are blessed. Thanks again for commenting.
posted by
benzinha
on March 7, 2004 at 9:10 PM
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Very touching poem
It brought me to tears and made me think about my Grandfather. I also wrote a poem about him after his passing. I called him Poppop, and I thought that he would live forever, well he does, its just that its in my heart now.
posted by
Sherri_G
on March 7, 2004 at 8:59 PM
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WileyyouoldCoyote, the thought of you reading of my sorrow makes me cry.
I know that your sorrow is also great and wide and deep. Busy work like digging holes and laying stones is good for a soul in agony. Digging the path helped me to make it through the first few days of having him gone.
posted by
benzinha
on March 7, 2004 at 8:52 PM
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ohBlanca, praise from you feels wonderful. Gabriela Mistral!! What a
compliment. I read her and Neruda and Borges and so many others who touch my soul and I try to write a little like them. Thank you so much for reading and commenting. Comments keep us writing, no? Gracias, hija.
posted by
benzinha
on March 7, 2004 at 8:49 PM
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LadyKenobi, when I watch others' sorrow at funerals and then watch my
family and many others trying to control their sorrow to "help" others with theirs, well, I envy those tribes and peoples who wail it all out of their souls into the air. The ones who actually pick up dirt, and rather than dropping it politely into their father's grave, throw it all over themselves while tearing their clothing, show the emotion that I felt the day that my dad died.
So, I wrote the words to symbolize throwing dirt on myself because actually doing it would have ripped my dear mother into tiny pieces of agony. She worried about how her children were holding up under the weight of it all and we all faked that we were doing better than we really were.
posted by
benzinha
on March 7, 2004 at 8:45 PM
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beachbelle, a grave stone carver's son without his own stone........my
father's family in Scotland and England were all stone carvers, for centuries. My immigrant grandfather carved stones in Michigan. I wanted to work in stone but don't have the strength nor bones for the hard jarring work. It is why I work in clay, as close as I can get to it. Mom and Dad wanted and want no gravestones, no space to visit, to hold a family's sorrow. They want it to feel as big as the world and as spacious, infinite. The people who will live in this house later will not know that the path is Puma's and that is fine. The making of the path was my sorrowful job and now it makes me smile when I see it. I haven't finished it yet, it's maybe half done, but I will finish it before I move on. These stones will serve to anchor my sorrow to the Earth.
posted by
benzinha
on March 7, 2004 at 8:40 PM
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Dave Cryer,I thank you for stopping and reading and commenting. I wanted
my family to understand the depth of my feeling of loss. I usually just stand in silence when faced with tragedy and despair. I sat silent at his memorial service. I have many eloquent sisters and brothers and they spoke. I couldn't.
So, a few days later I sat down and made this garden path and then came inside and wrote about why I did it and how I felt and what his passing meant to me. Thanks for calling it moving.
posted by
benzinha
on March 7, 2004 at 8:31 PM
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benzinha
thanks you for that soul touch, and condolences for your Puma
posted by
WileyJohn
on March 7, 2004 at 3:43 PM
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Grandma-
This is the best poem I've read on the BN. You have quite a talent. You remind me of Gabriela Mistral, the way you juxtapose nature with your own life. Well-crafted and methodical, yet beautiful. I love it.
Of course, this doesn't mean much when one considers the loss you suffered. I'm so sorry about your father.
posted by
ohBlanca
on March 6, 2004 at 3:19 PM
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that is such a great title
I wanna hear more about it!!
posted by
LadyKenobi
on March 5, 2004 at 8:58 AM
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Benzinha
What a beautiful poem and how strange it is when the grave carver's son has no stone.
I know someone who carves such stones for others but doesn't want one for themselves.
posted by
beachbelle
on March 4, 2004 at 3:39 PM
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This is a very moving poem.
posted by
_dave_says_ack_
on March 4, 2004 at 6:40 AM
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