"Chicken today, feathers tomorrow"

(for Grandma Irene)

http://www.lulu.com/content/223020
from JoeUser Forums
I heard that song today
and I pictured you
in your floral print muu-muu
in your overstuffed chair
in that stuffy duplex
in San Fernando Valley

Has your limp healed yet?
Are you finally at peace
and not worried
about your wayward children?

I can still hear your voice
comforting and cautious
"Chicken today, feathers tomorrow"

your gently acrid humor
would sure come in handy now

there was so much
I could've learned from you
but you died too early
and I became a parent too late

I hope they're playing
Englebert Humperdinck
in heaven for you.
poetry
1,466 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Buddha,
This piece was so evocative, I can almost smell her bath powder. I really like your conversational, un-self-conscious style. You just tell it like it is and it takes your reader to exactly where you are. Nicely done.
My grandma preferred Tom Jones.
Maggie
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
Maggie,

Thanks for the kind comment. When people don't comment, I start to second guess myself. (Then I remind myself of how many things I read and never comment on, and I feel a little better.) I am currently trying to read more traditional poetry, but for the life of me, but I keep missing the emotional center of these "classic" works.

For the record, my mom is a Tom Jones fan. -- Buddah
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
Buddha--I get Writer's Almanac e-mailed to me every day from PBS.org. Garrison Keillor features a poem a day--some traditional, some contemporary. I enjoy reading this every day. It gives me an insight into what published writers are doing. Some days I think I'm way out of my league, I'll never be able to write like that; other days I think I've done better stuff than that...
Actually listening to Keillor reading the poems helps finding the emotional center in some of the pieces.--Maggie
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
thanks for the link - I'll go get it. I found in my local library a great book on the craft of poetry called the Poetry Home Repair Manual. (I honestly picked it up thinking it was a home repair book done in verse.) It gives good exercises and insights about the writing process. Plus, it was a fun read.Link

I agree that there are some days where I feel like I am writing the same poem that I started in 1978. Then other times I feel that I am going deeper into my true self - to a place somewhere beyond technique.

Other days, I feel like my writing is just one long list.
Thanks for your words of encouragement. They really do mean a lot.
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Buddah, I'm just getting to this, JU's been a little hard to maneuver this week.

I liked it. It's simple and beautiful. A wonderful tribute to your mom.