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

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Remember?

The Swing

BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
How do you like to go up in a swing,
   Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
   Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
   Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
   Over the countryside—

Till I look down on the garden green,
   Down on the roof so brown—
Up in the air I go flying again,
   Up in the air and down!
Source: A Child's Garden of Verses (1999)

Remember the feel of your very first poem?
Remember the rhythm and rhyme?
Pleading with Mother to read it again
Feeling its music each time

Imagining every scene in your head
The rivers and garden and all
The words painted pictures so deep in your mind
Even though you were so small

How I would love to go back to those days
Back to when life was so new
How I would like to go up in a swing
Up in the air so blue!

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, What Sparked Your Poetic Heart?

5 comments:

Kerry O'Connor said...

I was always the girl on the swing when I read this poem.

What a delightful response to the prompt, LM.

Buddah Moskowitz said...

I love that you still have that first poem. The first book I ever read was "How Sam the Bear and Joe the Mouse Got Together" and I found a copy on eBay. It still works for me, just as I assume your poem works for you, Thanks
Mosk

Anonymous said...

This is so sweet and fun. I'd love to go back and enjoy a day again.

grapeling said...

I used to love swings. Then, my brain shrunk as I aged, and last time I tried, thought I'd pass out. :) ~

Rosemary Nissen-Wade said...

I didn't mention it among my many early poetic influences, in my poem - but I was brought up on A Child's garden of Verses too. :) You have recaptured that verve and sweetness in your own poem.