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Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. Leonard Cohen

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Swing, Redux

When I was too young to read them myself
my mother would read them to me
out of a book that I kept on my shelf
a Garden of Verse--poetry!

I'll always remember my favorite one
It seemed to me that it could sing
the way that the rhythm and rhyme had been done
The name of the verse was "The Swing"

After a long day of playing outside
I loved to come back home and then
listen to Mom read that poem to me
and feel myself swinging again!

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, The Gift of Poetry

image source

18 comments:

Brian Miller said...

smiles...so cool...the earliest memories i have of poetry are shel silverstein

Kerry O'Connor said...

Also one of my early favourites - I loved the picture as much as the words: such freedom as a child may have from parents, school, small griefs is to be found on a swing.

Pat Tillett said...

This really takes me back. Not to the poem or book, because I've never seen them, but to swinging. I used to love it so much and used to escape on them. I'd go so high and get a different view of what was around me.

Marian said...

oh great big shivers. and that looks so much like my daughter high up on that swing. i love your words! i too had the Garden of Verse. sigh.

Ella said...

I love the way you shared your beautiful memory~
Thanks for this gift...I can now see myself swinging~ Truly wonderful! :D

Brian Miller said...

sorry i stole your title...teach you to leave your notebook laying around...grins....

BB said...

Great post about happy childhood memories! And I love that poem to RLS too. Thanks for sharing your poem with us.

Mary Ann Potter said...

This one made me cry just a little bit with a similar memory. How I loved to hear my parents read to me! I can still recite "The Swing" by heart, you know, because that's where it is! Thanks for this memory-poem gift!

Mary said...

I also have such fond memories of that poem. I had a book of Robert Lewis Stevenson poems too as a child. I liked "The Swing" AND "The Land of Counterpane." I loved your write, for the words itself and also how it triggered my own memories. I guess that is one gift of poetry.

Fireblossom said...

You swinger, you. Ha!

Grace said...

Lovely memories...and I also love the swing ~

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Oh this is so cool - Now I remember this poem too, and I love the old illustration!

Anonymous said...

Oh I remember that poem - I loved it too, and I remember there was a melody that we sang it to, that just now popped into my head as I read. Thanks for posting that old favourite!

Susie Clevenger said...

what a beautiful memory written as a poem...I too remember the poem your mother read to you...Even reading it now sets the child free in me!

Maude Lynn said...

What a lovely memory!

JustRex said...

I remember that one from my childhood but the version that sticks the closest in my mind is from "Bullwinkles Poetry Corner". It was a classic reading.

Pearl said...

You know, I don't recognize the print, but I know the poem from my childhood! That's so cool!

Pearl

Raven said...

This just "feels good." Very Good!