Sunday, July 2, 2017

SOLILOQUY






Some melancholy thoughts on a sunny
Sunday afternoon. 
Submitted to Poets United
Poetry Pantry
July 2, 2017


For more than 30 years, my three good friends and I spent a week every autumn in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.  Creatures of habit, we stayed in the same room in the same lodge for all those years.  We spent long hours on the little balcony over the mountain river, and slept listening to the sound of its tumbling progress over the rocks below.   We shared our lives, our joys and tribulations, and marked those long hours with sometime tears, but always with much laughter.  The years passed, and two of our foursome  passed on to what comes after.  Last year, a careless spark ignited a dreadful fire that swept down the mountainside and burned to the ground the lodge we loved so much.  I was bereft.  One day soon, I thought, the last two of us shall follow our friends, and we’ll all be gone … the four of us, the lodge, and the balcony where we shared our lives.  We’ll all be but a blip in the passage of time.  A new lodge will replace the old, and new young housewives will come for their annual girlfriend getaway.  But I wonder, I just wonder,  if our spirits may not linger in the green hills above,  the sound of our laughter be heard faintly as the water tumbles over the rocks below, and our names be written in the smoky mists that hang over the mountains.

Smoky Mountain autumn
spirits linger in green hills
laughter in the air

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16 comments:

  1. A lifetime of memories gathered in your final hiaku. This is a beautiful piece of writing Beverly. And a wonderful tribute to all four of you.

    Elizabeth

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  2. Oh, Bev, this is so very touching....and timeless. Yes, this is the progression of life, isn't it? People age, pass on, and familiar settings change. But there is always another generation, another lodge, another story....such as yours. A beautiful write!

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  3. You and your friends will be immortalized in that setting and I can feel it by your words. Have a great Fourth of July weekend!

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  4. This one takes my breath away. A tenderly rendered - BEAUTIFUL - haibun.

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  5. This really is the most beautiful writing I have read today. Absolutely stunning in its ability to touch the reader's heart.

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  6. My hand is over my heart. This is living poetry full of signs and nostalgia. I can hear your laughter through the lines, feel the tears... I also feel that a place that has affected the soul so deeply can't go unaffected by the same soul. Your trip, your friends, your adventures, these memories now shared... will never be a blip.

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  7. There's a sense of loss and also that of refilling. Exquisite.

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  8. Beverly, I cant tell you how much I resonate with this, how moving it is, and how beautiful. I like to think some of that laughter and those memories have taken root there along the river, and will always echo. I echo Old Egg - the most beautiful thing I have read today.

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  9. Some wonderful reflections here

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  10. A sense of loss and a sense of hope. Your laughter will live on forever.

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  11. Love your reflections... and somehow I feel the passage of time so much more in summer... so I can easily relate to the passage of time if not such a wonderful 30 years of friendship.

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  12. With your words many-a heart took wing

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