Today, she sits in quiet contemplation. A day of rest for the body and yet, the heart remembers stories of untold secrets that remain silenced. Too many pieces to that puzzle missing, she sighs, wishing she could do more…
no one could resist
weeping lost innocence
no one could resist
dancing to wise women’s song free the children
Somehow, that song and action to free other children around the world soothed her…for today.
She remembers metals taps on the soles of her shoes, click click clicking on the sidewalk pretending to be Gene Kelly. Do you remember buying bubble gum for a penny? Oh! and for nickel, you could get an ice cream cone or a loaf of bread! She remembers scratchy feeling crinolines and hula-hoop slips…the latter you could not sit unless you wanted everyone to see your undies. Thanks goodness mini skirts came out…no room for crinolines!
She remembers when she was ten running to the chip wagon with a quarter and getting a small order of French fries and a hot-dog. Those were the days her mother was too busy in the beauty parlour…she loved those days and preferred this meal to Swanson’s frozen dinners where meat tasted like cardboard.
She remembers watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show and falling in love with John; that’s when she bought his book of poems and fell in love with poetry.
Saved from theswinginsixties.tumblr.com
Do you remember Sonny and Cher. Those were the days the only fake thing Cher had were her eyelashes…how I found her so beautiful!! Did you know that her real name is Cherilyn? (Thought that might be an interesting tid-bit.) She remembers her first love lasting twenty-eight years; married the year the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour started.
Do you remember when milk was delivered to the house in bottles? She remembers the bread man delivering to the house in a horse drawn cart. How she felt sorry for that horse who looked so tired and old! She remembers watching the fireworks at St-Jean Baptiste on June 24th and eating her nickel cotton candy!
Then came mini-skirts and fast cars, sit-ins and love-ins. Teenage love and wedding bells…baby carriage and empty nests…and suddenly grandchild is soon entering high school!
Having cleaned the windows yesterday, she thought this would make life more enjoyable; yet, watching her dear friend try to jump at birds in flight, she had to slide the window to leave a three-inch gap, so her friend wouldn’t fall through the screen.
(c)Clr’16
teasing sparrows
sashaying back and forth
restless feline whines
E is for Emerald and my mom’s favourite colour was green makes this post all the more meaningful. When I think of the word “emerald” however, I also think of Emerald City in the land of Oz which was the famous dream of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. I was quite surprised when I read that this children`s book was published in 1900, written by Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. If you look at the illustrations, you can see the characters in the movie (1939) were pretty darn close.
Every October the movie played on television when I was growing up and my father would call my sister and me to come watch the movie with him and my mother. It was a tradition, sort of like The Sound of Music was with my children and other holiday classics.
Ah that Emerald City was the place where Dorothy would get all her problems resolved and get home to Kansas. How I loved her red patent leather shoes!! And the famous phrase was on the lips of many after a long trip, “There’s no place like home, There’s no place like home.”
No matter how many times I saw the movie, each time I would still fear that wicked old witch and her soldiers and those trees too!!! Oh, my goodness!!
I never realized how much that movie became a part of me until I was a young adult and read The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty and every night I was so scared of the devil (being Catholic we actually feared being possessed!) for three months after reading this book, I would cross my arms over my chest and repeat “I don’t believe in the power of the devil, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t” I became the Lion that lacked courage at 20 years old! I never could see the movie…if ever it was television and I turned the channel on that movie by mistake, just a few seconds hearing a deep voice coming out of that little girl, I would have nightmares for days! Yep, that’s how scared I was.
Emerald City was such a place to be and I loved the part where Dorothy is getting all prettied up ( my mother being a hairdresser made it even more meaningful). My mother loved Judy Garland (who played Dorothy) and even when her dementia was very advanced, I would sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow and her eyes came back to life.
Photo: Cheryl-Lynn Dec 2013, Montreal on my way home to the Métro
Interestingly as I was looking for a word synonymous with never forgotten, I heard the voice of Nat King Cole crooning “unforgettable” in my mind, and just knew, Mom was near me at this very moment.
In their twenty’s they became friends with their neighbours downstairs from their duplex. Finally, she met a Quebecois couple who appreciated her music too! They would spend hours in the “music room” listening to vinyl turning on their Technique blasting from their Pioneer speakers and later their Avid.
Hours getting drunk on the music…no need for drugs here. Hotel California was played over and over and over so many times. It’s a wonder the vinyl didn’t wear out but it wouldn’t , now would it with quality diamonds turning on that record.
No matter how much I feel I am fine alone, loving my independence, embracing my solitude so I can think, meditate and write at my heart’s content…listening to this song right now makes my heart flip flops, longing for that connection…
(senryu)
dreaming, you – me
locked in reckless abandon
our sinful desires
~
(tanka)
gravity kicks in
before the rise of dawn
drags me to reality
reach out to caress you
fingers stroke just mangled sheets
Something always brings me back to you.
It never takes too long.
No matter what I say or do
I’ll still feel you here ’til the moment I’m gone.
You hold me without touch.
You keep me without chains.
I never wanted anything so much
Than to drown in your love and not feel your rain.
[CHORUS:]
Set me free,
Leave me be.
I don’t wanna fall another moment into your gravity
Here I am and I stand so tall, just the way I’m supposed to be.
But you’re on to me and all over me.
Oh, you loved me ’cause I’m fragile
When I thought that I was strong.
But you touch me for a little while
And all my fragile strength is gone.
[CHORUS]
I live here on my knees
As I try to make you see
That you’re everything I think I need here on the ground.
But you’re neither friend nor foe
Though I can’t seem to let you go.
The one thing that I still know is that you’re keeping me down.
You’re keeping me down, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You’re on to me, on to me, and all over…
Something always brings me back to you.
It never takes too long.
Tournesol dans un Jardin 