Sentimental Journey Continued…
I’m from my grandmother’s picnic basket
sleeping on curlers in baby doll pajamas
kerchiefs and bobby socks..hoola hoops and the twist
Dear Diary today is Friday…
I’m standing on the wall of Fort Revere in my hometown of Hull, Massachusetts. It used to be covered in graffiti. The ocean is to my left, the bay to my right. The building to my left is where our family home used to be, 10 ½ Spring Street. The town took it through eminent domain, burned it to the ground, and built a sewage plant in its place. I guess I’m sentimental because it disturbs me that Bob Dylan’s song “The Times They Are A’Changin” is being used to sell cell phones on TV and that a sewage plant stands on the land where the house that I grew up in used to be.
My friend, Fragments Fred, has a column in our local newspaper. He recently introduced the poem “Where I’m From,” George Ella Lyon’s poem from the book “Where I’m From, Where Poems Come From,” to readers and invited them to write their own version of it. Today my version of it appeared in his follow-up column, which prompted me to think more about “Where I’m From” and to dig out these photos to share.
April 29th, 2005 10:19 am
Congratualations! I grew up in Bedford, MA. I would love to go back to Concord, and the Air Force base we lived on. I have dreams frequently of how things have changed…my sister has told me stories. She’s been back several times. Some day. I still have a teacher I keep in touch with there. She was the first “black” teacher I ever had and it was in 3rd grade. It angers me now how controversial it was even back in the early 70’s. Thank God my parents brought me up better than the predjudices that haunted us then. She’s the best teacher I’ve ever had ;0)
April 29th, 2005 12:12 pm
We do have some things in common!
April 29th, 2005 3:20 pm
Colleen, thanks for referencing Floyd. HIs photos and writing are both beautiful and I enjoy it very much.
April 30th, 2005 2:09 am
hey you. thanks for visiting.i’m enjoying your journals. keep inspiring.
April 30th, 2005 10:02 am
Colleen, I see you’re doing what I suggested on Fragments once: to take the WIF and elaborate on the deeper meaning and context of the completed poem. It seems like an exercise whose depth and breadth is vast and potentially full of meaning–to the author and to the reader. You’re extension of your WIF in this way is certainly testimony to that fact. Thanks!