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A poem, A regret

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Posted 12/31/2018 10:03 AM (GMT -5)
Sitting Among the Remnants of the Future

A school year book
A picture from that date
A bridal magazine
A real estate magazine
Those words
That last letter

All in a box, in the shed
What could have been
What should have been

The gift of the past –
the remnant of a future

----------
Wishing all a happy new year,
Andrew
Posted 12/31/2018 10:21 AM (GMT -5)
HNY back atcha, Andrew.
Posted 12/31/2018 10:21 AM (GMT -5)
The gift of the past....the remnant of a future...great line...seminal...
Posted 12/31/2018 11:14 AM (GMT -5)
Andrew,
Yikes! That is really powerful.

A philosopher, whose name evades me, once wrote; " you know you are getting old when you no longer look forwad to your dreams, but back on your regrets."

Happy New Year to you as well.
Posted 12/31/2018 11:17 AM (GMT -5)
I like that Andrew, thanks

A Happy and HEALTHY New Year to all, here's to hoping its a great 2019
Posted 12/31/2018 11:24 AM (GMT -5)
Advice you don't want...but may heed...burn the box and all that's in it...first loves never die...'dont need no steeken badges'...Mr Bill nailed it...the whole regret thing...period...and there are very young old folks and very old young folks...to be or...ya know what I mean...jellybean!!
Posted 12/31/2018 12:40 PM (GMT -5)
Hope for the future, yes, eyes wide open - sure, regrets and "remnant of a future"....no thanks!

But thank you, Andrew! Glad to be leaving 2018 behind.
Posted 12/31/2018 1:20 PM (GMT -5)
Great poem, reminded me of that song "Soldier's Things" a bit.

Happy New Year Andrew!
Posted 12/31/2018 1:30 PM (GMT -5)
This is about the time I usually step in and offer a critical analysis of one of Andrew's fine poems. Not this time.

This time my reaction is one that is very personal and very emotional. There was such an impact this poem had on me.

As soon as I had read the last line, I was like Proust having the mental flash of the piece of cake, with all the color and imagery and memory of it that suddenly thrust into his mind.

Except that in my case, the flash that Andrew's poem produced in me was that of my going through all of my wife's personal effects soon after she had died seven years ago: effects such as the poem describes, yearbooks, pictures, magazines, letters.

Oh, yes, those letters! Marilyn had saved every letter I had ever sent to her! And to read them all then, in that awful but bittersweet setting, bringing back all those memories of her and our time together! Oh my! Oh, the tears I let go!

A poem can reach inside of oneself and pull up not only "...What could have been, What should have been" but as well "what was." Maybe painfully so, but that's not such a bad thing.

Because it reminds one of the universality of such an experience, caught in a poem. That one is not alone. Others have dealt with it, this loss embodied in a collection, left behind, of things. And so will I!

And that causes perspective, something sometimes lost when sorting through all those "remnants of a future" left after the loss of a dearly loved one.

A good poem can do that.

For that, thank you, Andrew.
Posted 12/31/2018 2:03 PM (GMT -5)
Andrew,

This, I think, is one of your better poems. Usually, they take a while for me to grasp what is really being said. When I read this one, I was silent. My mind was reeling with my own versions of those moments, all difficult to re-live; some painful, most bittersweet. Many thanks for a most thought-provoking piece.
Posted 12/31/2018 4:03 PM (GMT -5)
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.

Happy New Year to All.

Steve
Posted 12/31/2018 4:21 PM (GMT -5)
Anyone watch the Orville last night?

The blind date scene comes to mind. "It is the fishhook that..."

It is strange that 2018 was going to be the great year for us.

Didn't quite work out that way. Hopefully in 2019 we'll say goodbye to cancer.

Happy New Year everyone!
Posted 12/31/2018 4:49 PM (GMT -5)
Andrew, two thumbs up! Powerful yet poignant. A fine way to end the year.

Jim
Posted 12/31/2018 4:54 PM (GMT -5)
No but I love the few episodes I did see before it went mainstream...MacFarland got a little preachy at times...big turn off for me...but other than that Its hilarious...now A Million Ways to Die in the West...over the top funny...where do I start....Could Charlize Theron be anymore attractive...wow...ok back to voodoo kudo's..."Hey I paints what I see's"(google Gahan Wilson)...and what I see's is subject to change...as things morph...so does I... freedom,,,tears...….rhymes with pear …you didn't think it rhymed with fear...from moi...puhleaze!!
Posted 12/31/2018 7:41 PM (GMT -5)
Thanks Andrew and have a good next year.

Roger
Posted 12/31/2018 7:43 PM (GMT -5)
Thanks for all your kind words on the poem.

81 - a poem succeeds when the reader finds value in the words. Thank you for share your reaction to it.

Peace,
Andrew
Posted 1/1/2019 4:32 AM (GMT -5)
Thanks, I also found it moving, hope is always forward looking! Peace Denis
Posted 1/1/2019 8:50 AM (GMT -5)
Nicely composed. Moving. Thank you.

Wilderness
Posted 1/3/2019 8:28 AM (GMT -5)
This poem was so great I wanted to bump it back up in case anyone missed it.
Posted 1/3/2019 5:55 PM (GMT -5)
Thanks for all the comments.

Andrew
Posted 1/4/2019 2:23 AM (GMT -5)
came across this happenstance (I'm a UC'er; husband a Pca'er).
You ought to submit this to the Paris Review. Very moving.
Posted 1/4/2019 12:19 PM (GMT -5)
Tristan - thanks for the kind words.

someday I might submit my poems to places like this, but for now, HW is my audience.
Posted 1/4/2019 12:22 PM (GMT -5)

InTheShop said...

....someday I might submit my poems to places like this, but for now, HW is my audience.

Could a poetry book, The "poems of prostate cancer", be on the horizon?
Posted 1/4/2019 12:33 PM (GMT -5)
Garyi - I have a draft of that book in my briefcase (80 pages, mostly free verse with some prose).

At the moment I'm thinking of self-publishing it. I was going to call a local company today that handles all the details of formatting, typing setting, putting on Amazon, Barns and Noble, on-demand printing, etc.

sadly they decided to take the whole week off.

But next week I plan to get the project rolling.

Andrew
Posted 1/4/2019 3:57 PM (GMT -5)
Sure glad this got bumped or I would've missed it. So moving. And all the more so, after reading everyone else's reactions to it. Thank you Andrew, and a happy new year to you all from Downunder.
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