Write a post in the style of (or simply
inspired by) a favorite author.
During my
first years on Kwajalein, I was taking literature classes to complete my
Bachelor’s degree in English. One of the
classes required me to write a response poem to a poem that could be found in
our course anthology book. I chose the
poem “Making the Jam Without You” by Maxine Kumin. Since my poem is a response
poem, it is in exactly the same style as the author’s, only the perspective
written from is quite different. Maxine wrote the poem to her daughter, and I
responded as a daughter (but thinking of my own mother and our distance from
each other at the time). Here’s the poem
I wrote for that class in response to Ms. Kumin’s poem….all the way from the
late 1990’s!
One daughter’s response poem
to “Making the Jam Without You”
For Mom
Wise mother, best
friend,
arriving home
from a long day at a necessary job,
in the small
Alabama town you’ve known all your life,
where thousands
of memories haunt and delight you.
I received your
heart’s thoughts, they are the same as mine.
Listen! Here the
lawnmowers are manicuring the green grasses,
while the leaves
fall where you are.
Palm frawns wave
in the hot breeze,
while you pick up
pine cones in the cool, crisp air.
Now, I am fixing
lunch for my new husband,
while you prepare
dinner for an old friend.
I am reminded of
long breakfasts on free mornings,
talking over our
cold coffee and half eaten English muffins for hours,
things I talk to
you about and cannot discuss with any other.
We are not only
mother and daughter, but kindred spirits and restless souls.
I, ready to
discover what my future holds, children and career.
You, wondering
where God will move you to begin making new memories,
after the
marriage and children, memories in which life has made you
an independent
woman, able to carry out any and all of your dreams,
for you have been
set free from you past.
As much as I’d
love to be your little girl forever,
I must prepare to
be a mother to my future children,
and I must let
you go to live your life.
You have raised
your children and raised them well, I might add.
But there are
plans for you still and
my plans have
taken me miles and oceans away, for now.
In my dream for
you,
I see you on the
white, sandy beaches on which you’ve always wished to be,
combing the shore
for shells,
and at peace with
new memories of sunsets,
love, and joy
surrounding you, and
I lift the flap
of your dream to step out and give you a call,
for I’ll never
stop calling while you listen for hours,
and I’ll never
let our memories together stop being made
even though we
will sometimes make our jam
in two different
kitchens.
No comments:
Post a Comment