Having read Dianne's post and Lee's follow on post,
I was driven to write this.
Memories past
Old envelopes, filled
With letters, notes and billet doux;
Moments of emotion,
Expressions of love or thanks or just adieu.
Love gone unrequited
And love most freely shown;
Pleadings from the heart
And notes of from hearts of stone.
Stories from the country,
Postcards from the beach,
Letters from the front,
And Mum’s attempts to teach.
Letters writ with tears
And read with tears once more;
Wrapped with love and ribbon
And kept in a bottom drawer.
Time entrapped eternal
But released every now and then
To warm a heart once more
In the dreamy land of ‘when’.
When I was young…
When life moved at a different pace…
When people took more time…
And valued style and grace.
Now, when communication is quick
But seldom very deep
Where txt jst sez "luv ya babe"
What memories will our children keep?
I was driven to write this.
Memories past
Old envelopes, filled
With letters, notes and billet doux;
Moments of emotion,
Expressions of love or thanks or just adieu.
Love gone unrequited
And love most freely shown;
Pleadings from the heart
And notes of from hearts of stone.
Stories from the country,
Postcards from the beach,
Letters from the front,
And Mum’s attempts to teach.
Letters writ with tears
And read with tears once more;
Wrapped with love and ribbon
And kept in a bottom drawer.
Time entrapped eternal
But released every now and then
To warm a heart once more
In the dreamy land of ‘when’.
When I was young…
When life moved at a different pace…
When people took more time…
And valued style and grace.
Now, when communication is quick
But seldom very deep
Where txt jst sez "
What memories will our children keep?
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© J Cosmo Newbery
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Thanks Cosmo. This story seems to be a 'pass the parcel' sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteSounds like time in a bottle in the form of written words and regret of the lost art.
ReplyDeleteVery powerful.
our children will have memories of technology woes and not being able to retrieve their messages..
ReplyDeletebut i do have to say that my youngest has started exchanging letters with a friend of his who has moved away. i'm glad...
it's so true what you write though. as i read this i thought of my own stuffed envelopes, a few shoeboxes stuffed with letters and postcards, a diary or two of mine downstairs .. all from a couple of decades ago. i'm glad i have them.
al
Beautifully written j cosmo.♥
ReplyDeleteI do have many letters and cards which I have saved over the years from people close to my heart, they are tied up with ribbon and kept in a special box sprinkled with lavender flowers. ♥
I really like to get them out and read them from time to time;some have pressed flowers, some still contain linen & lace handkerchiefs from my Grandmother, many memories there.
I have exchanged handwritten letters with my children, the youngest who is a computer buff always hand writes my cards and the two older children love writing letters, my daughter has beautiful handwriting, she likes calligraphy and my eldest son is a devotee of the fountain pen, so I would say we have a nice mix of traditional and modern forms of communication.
Those text messages I mentioned in my post weren't anything like you have quoted in the final stanza of your poem, they were beautifully written by a man of words and my letters to him could have come straight out of a Jane Austen novel, that's why I treasure them so much. ♥
These letters you speak of fall into the realm of stuff...in my case, boxes and boxes of sad stuff. I move mine around from house to house, so that whenever the mood to accessorize with an albatross hits me, I have plenty of feathers to choose from. My husband says get rid of them. He's a smart man... yet I hesitate. Sick, no?
ReplyDeleteOh, by the bye, thank you for your eloquent poesy. As always.
ReplyDeleteI loved this. But it made me a little sad, too. I must be in a melancholy mood this weekend.
ReplyDeleteDianne: I'm pleased your text messages show an eloquence that's lacking from some others I have seen. I should point out that you and Lee added a trigger to the poem but beyond that I was doing my own thing. Love your little hearts, by the way!
ReplyDeleteI cherish letters and cards...I touch the handwritten script on the page as if it will connect me once more to the hand which wrote it- hands which in some cases- have already passed into an untouchable realm. And yet, I have a few friends who text me with a quick hello, or a warm xoxoxo- and those gestures of thoughtfulness fill me with the love and kindness intended.
ReplyDeleteI love communication- bundled up in ribbons, or digitally captured on my phone, and I especially loved your poem...as always :)
Having just lost my father earlier this year, I can say that I find a great deal of comfort (and sadness) in his writings. His personality is so evident in the way he wrote and I feel so lucky to have grown up in the generation where the art of letter writing was still practiced. It's nearly non-existent nowadays and your poem brings that to the forefront for me. I am going to be sure to leave some type of written legacy for my children that they can enjoy forever. Thank you for the gift.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is perfect. As a letter writer, I've really "felt" the absence of "snail mail" and letters of substance with real handwriting.
ReplyDelete