Fair Niece, 1989

Fair Niece, 1989, originally uploaded by confections.

"Moonchild"

a poem in a variation of the Malayan Pantoum Form


She crowned as a redhead, we thought,
this wise newborn girl,
fair niece Laken Julia, a moonchild.
Surprise! Her hair is a halo of flax.

This wise newborn girl,
papa and mama's firstborn.
Surprise! Her hair is a halo of flax.
With delicate fingers, she signs in slow-motion.

Papa and mama's firstborn,
her eyes wide open in her first night of life.
With delicate fingers, she signs in slow-motion,
ancient waves of remembering wash through her.

Her eyes wide open in her first night of life.
She crowned as a redhead, we thought,
ancient waves of remembering wash through her,
fair niece Laken Julia, a moonchild.

Daddy Reading at the Cabin

Daddy Reading at the Cabin, originally uploaded by confections.

I lost my father to an accident seventeen years ago today. In the aftermath of his loss, an elderly friend of mine, a poet who had only known my Dad through my sister and me, wrote a moving tribute to him. I'm including it here; it was written by my late friend, Mary Ellen Gallagher (Drumdaughter), whom I sorely miss as well.

♥

On the last full day of his life
he climbed a tree.
What, you ask, was a seventy-four
year old man doing
climbing a tree?

Perhaps the bright autumn woods
made him feel a boy again
and he longed to be held in leafy arms,
gaze once more on his beloved fields,
and touch the wild September sky.

In numinous response to leaves
and sun and apple-scented air
he moved old aching bones up to the tree top
and started his journey away from
minds which look askance at old men in trees.

I could only wish to climb a tree
on the last full day of my life.