Resonance
Where does the sound of a bell go?
People, places and things of the past
ring silently true in the present
They glow like the ghosts of an afterlife
and float wherever they will
They’re as real as the ground that I walk on
with nothing to hold as it spins
They echo and ripple and shift out of place
in the background of mounting days
I follow the landmarks of their memories
and dream the dreams I have loved
Some reappear by my longing for them
as shadows teased from darkroom negatives
Pulled from the ether, they live in glimpses
They linger beyond the bounds of matter
Embodied as remnants, they resonate in poems
held by the auras of everlasting bonds
______Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United / dVerse Poets Pub
March 15th, 2020 9:14 am
As I grow older, one of the lessons I am learning well is that death does not sever the bonds of love, as your poem so poignantly affirms. Thank you.
March 15th, 2020 9:52 am
An interesting title and thought-provoking retrospective piece.
I follow the landmarks of their memories
and dream the dreams I have loved…
This is beautifully phrased.
March 15th, 2020 11:25 am
That must be a powerful longing for some dreams to reappear. I’ll work on that if my energy isn’t too zapped out yet.
March 15th, 2020 12:30 pm
This has a lovely cadence and it calls up memories as it goes.
March 15th, 2020 12:51 pm
There is so much power in memories we hold real.
March 15th, 2020 2:11 pm
This is incredibly beautiful, Colleen. I especially love and identify with; “They linger beyond the bounds of matter/ Embodied as remnants, they resonate in poems held by the auras of everlasting bonds.”?
March 15th, 2020 4:21 pm
This is just gorgeous Colleen! It feels both ethereal and so solid in the world
March 15th, 2020 6:30 pm
A beautiful capture of memories and what they mean to us.
March 15th, 2020 9:55 pm
This resonates with me. My favorite lines: “Some reappear by my longing for them
as shadows teased from darkroom negatives.”
March 16th, 2020 2:35 am
How important it is to hold on to past where love and memories created the person you are from your childhood. Some of us delve into family history and leave our research for our families and friends to see.
March 16th, 2020 5:00 am
We write them alive…sorta. Nice work, CR.
March 16th, 2020 3:23 pm
I too have been searching through my memories, viewing faded photographs through the mist of smiles and tears..grabbing wisdom as it swims by
March 16th, 2020 7:07 pm
This was fun to read, a little eerie. and kept me thinking of who all in past would be included and who would not. Villains and heroes, women, children, and men, pets (my now-deceased Adi Beagle) my grandmother I never new or even met who died of the great flu of 1917, ad infinitum?
..
March 17th, 2020 8:45 am
I very much agree.
March 19th, 2020 5:45 pm
I like how those things in the past ring true in the present.
March 19th, 2020 6:08 pm
As poets we reap and harvest the past like good shepherds and stalwart farmers. It is the fodder for our poetics, as we inhabit the Now, careening off the chaos like a tennis ball shot out of a gun.
March 19th, 2020 6:46 pm
immortal beings giving us eternal solace
March 19th, 2020 7:49 pm
A magical and surreal world – I believe they exist.
March 19th, 2020 9:05 pm
Those gone before are always with us weather we realize or not. We are because they were….
Great poem!
March 19th, 2020 9:36 pm
So beautiful to think that memories never die.
March 20th, 2020 4:32 am
I think many of us are looking back in the current ground-spinning situation, Colleen, all trying to grasp at the ghosts of the past for some comfort when the future is uncertain. I like the tone of this poem, not panicky or angry, calm and philosophical. I particularly like the phrase ‘shadows teased from darkroom negatives’.
March 20th, 2020 12:52 pm
Beautiful. I especially like “shadows teased from darkroom negatives”.
March 20th, 2020 5:53 pm
What an evocative poem. Loved ‘the landmarks of their memories’ and how you explore that landscape.
March 21st, 2020 1:08 pm
One day our memories are more precious than what’s present… that’s a sobering thought.