Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Childhood Memories 2

Too tired to post, there are 4m people in Ireland and they were all ahead of me in every queue in the local shopping centre today. So here's one of the poems I penned as Christmas gifts this year. They are more doggerel than poetry but they are personal and heartfelt. This one was for Dad, Mam sadly died in 1991 - at 53 when she had reared us all and just got her life back.....Carpe Diem, folks, Carpe Diem

Childhood Memories#1
Mam and Dad

In a small suburban kitchen
Winter ‘66
A family group sat around a fire
Four children and their parents
Daddy in his fireside chair
uniform braces loosened
His stockinged feet were stretched up high
and resting on the mantle
His arms were bent
His hands prayer-like
Eyes closed, he was dozing
But half an ear was lent our way
For Hans Christian Andersen was speaking
Mam,
she breathed such glorious life,
Into each spellbinding story
A Mermaid small
Red Dancing Shoes
That poorest Little Match Girl
Mam softly wept
and we sobbed too
wishing we could help them
The younger ones were soon asleep
Dad lifted Lou so gently
Mam kissed us all
up the hall we skipped
To the Kingdom of our bedroom
He tucked us in
A prayer
A kiss
‘No talking now, ye hear me!’
We giggled and we cuddled up
Thinking, we’re so lucky.
Weren’t we?
Evelyn Walsh Christmas ‘09

2 comments:

  1. Gorgeous Ev! Fantastically visual, brought a little tear to my eye...x

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  2. Hmmmm, well.... you've also heard some of the harsher poems I've written about my childhood, so I suppose it's nice to know that like all lives - there were good strong happy memories too, read today's one about my sister Judy.

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