Thought for the Day - May 10

Subject: Thought for the Day - May 10
From: jeffp
Date: 10 May 00 - 09:22 AM

My sister sent me some poetry she discovered that our grandmother wrote. I had had no idea that she was a poet. As it turns out, she had been published several times. I wish I had been interested when she was alive.

Anyway, one of the poems really spoke to me and I thought it would be especially appropriate for the Mudcat, so I want to share it with you.

Old Songs
Old songs bring back memories,
Memories long dead,
Memories that clutch the heart
Like a weight of lead.

Memories that bring back youth,
Sounds of dancing feet,
Voices that have long been stilled,
Voices sad and sweet.

Old songs take me back again
Far across the years,
While my heart is singing
My eyes are filled with tears.

In my heart is mingled
Joy and bitter pain,
As I sit and listen
To an old refrain.

I think she really understood what makes us tick.

jeffp

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 10
From: tar_heel
Date: 10 May 00 - 12:16 PM

well,it got to me,jeffp!i'm an old sentimentl fool...i can cry at the drop of a hat!but good poetry and memories can just tear me up altogether!!!i loved it!!!sniff!!!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 10
From: Wesley S
Date: 10 May 00 - 12:19 PM

Can we assume that you'll put it to music ??

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 10
From: JenEllen
Date: 10 May 00 - 12:26 PM

Wonderful poem, and terribly true. It must be a very lonely exhistance to never have a song make you 'remember when'.
~Elle

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 10
From: Amos
Date: 10 May 00 - 12:29 PM

I have always harbored the secret and somewhat heretical notion that folkies are by nature time-travelers in disguise. Give them six strings and an audience (optional) and they'll suddenly vanish into the eighteenth century, running down along the coast of high Barbary or into the woods with the Gypsy Davey. Ya gotta love people who can do that!

A

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 10
From: jeffp
Date: 10 May 00 - 12:52 PM

You can rest assured I'll be setting this one to music. There are some others that will make good songs as well. In fact my sister and I are talking about creating a multimedia CD-ROM featuring our grandmother's poetry.

By the way, for the record, the poem is by Sara Fay Wait. I'll keep everybody posted on progress if this project actually gets off the ground. Glad you like it!

jeffp

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 10
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 May 00 - 01:39 PM

I really liked this. I found out all kinds of cool stuff about my grandmother at her memorial service that I wish I'd known earlier... so, how old was she when she wrote this one? And how long was she a poet?

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 10
From: wysiwyg
Date: 10 May 00 - 01:54 PM

I have a long-gone great grandmother like that, waiting for me to do something with her poems.

Thanks for the reminder. Her name was Mandana Holt Carpenter-- Dana. I have seen a photo of her in long skirts and long, puffed sleeves, getting ready to rustle up supper for her men at the summer Adirondack fishing camp I began visiting again a few years ago. She is just about to go in to the hot woodstove, which now sits in my kitchen, to cook with water fetched for her (on a good day) by the boys.

She was a doll, formal and austere looking, except for those dancing eyes and wild poems. And her sons, all three, grew up to be Sugar Dog Men. They romped at Camp every summer, all summer, with their rather severe dad, who knew young men need large woods to play in and large deeds to do.

I suppose old BF must have been a Sugar Dog Man in his own way, in his own time's way, as curmudgeons often turn out to be. For Dana's eyes do dance, unquenched, and even a Sugar Dog cannot raise Sugar Dog Men without a little help from someone or other. (I hope it was BF, who is remembered by later generations now for the severity.)

One of these boys, who grew up to be my grand-uncle Ben, had a particularly wicked sense of humor that still catches Camp visitors today, though he is no longer sitting in his chair to see it and lead the gales of laughter. There is a door that opens on the opposite side doors usually do. So Ben installed a big ornate, black, cast iron handle, where the handle "should" be, on the white door. The real, operable doorknob, also white, is in "plain sight" on the other side. That door has kept all visitors on one level-- below Ben!

~S~

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 10
From: jeffp
Date: 10 May 00 - 02:23 PM

Mrrzy, I'm afraid I don't know the answers to your questions. As of Sunday, I didn't even know she had been a poet. I'll be embarking on a "voyage of discovery." Unfortunately, not a lot is known of her early life; not even her parents' first names. I do have some clues that will help me with some research. Anybody with experience in geneological research is invited to send me a personal message so I can pick your brains. I'll also be quizzing my mother for any drops of info she has. I know she has other poems that she will send me, as well as letters from the period that my grandparents lived in Australia, right after they were married in the 1920s. I'm so looking forward to reading them.

jeffp

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 10
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 May 00 - 05:01 PM

I've found that, when someone you've known well dies, especially when they are old, you always find out that there are whole swathes of their life that you never had a clue were there. Friends, interests, adventures...

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 10
From: skarpi
Date: 10 May 00 - 05:53 PM

Well I liked the poem thank you for shere this with us. I also have got some poem from me grandfather who died many years ago, i had no idea that he was a poem. All the best skarpi Iceland.