You with your oak bark hands
planted on the bank
just before the hill drop
to what is now town.
I could see worlds
still turning in your memory,
as if the clock stopped
in a hundred different places.
I even recognise a few
of the people caught here
in this last place of green
before the concrete and brick.
It is a cruelty to take you
from this bank above town.
It is crueller still to take all this
away.
My mother thinks I should try to write some less heavy poems, and I have been trying, but they all seem to twist into the shadows.
Carol J Forrester 
You are right, this is a dark place. But somehow more bittersweet, with that imagery of the last spot of greenery left.
Where I live at the moment is expanding at such a rate that I half wonder if one day I just won’t recognise it. There’s an importance to open green spaces that isn’t really recognised anymore.
Another stunning, sad poem, Carol! The lines that called out to me loudly are:
‘I could see worlds
still turning in your memory,
as if the clock stopped
in a hundred different places.’
Heart-breaking!
Yeah… my mother may have a point about my poetry collection needing some lighter poems to break it up.
I liked it, it was earthy and solid and well written.
I like those worlds turning in the memory.
A lovely word journey.
A muscular message that resonates with all of us. I have lived over 30 years in the same place, and nearly all the open, green spaces and farms are gone now, replaced by identical ticky-tacky towers of condos and apartments. It hurts my eyes and heart, and clogs the streets with commuter traffic.
I dig heavy
I can see that last bit of green holding desperately to its place amidst the hunger Man seems to have for any resource available to him.
That last stanza is a tough one to take.
The last stanza is painful. The last bit of green. Heartbreaking.
What an image this produces, Carol: “as if the clock stopped / in a hundred different places.”
It’s because of poets that we can live with the shadows.
This is so sad, but so well done Carol.
Excellent use of metaphor Carol! Creatively conceived, and very effective! Very sad…
Thanks Rob. Apologies, I just found your comment about your eyesight in my spammed comments. Are you feeling better?