This post harks back to the one I did on mum's birthday. One night while helping Lucy with her homework I came across this poem by Janet Frame - and it really struck a chord with me! So I really want to put this up for people to read and to hear how they react to it.
The Place
The place where the floured hens
sat laying their breakfast eggs,
frying their bacon-coloured combs in the sun
is gone.
You know the place-
in the hawthorn hedge
by the wattle tree
by the railway line.
I do not remember these things
-they remember me,
not as child or woman but as their last excuse
to stay, not wholly to die.
After reading this I started to think of the places of my childhood - my grandparents place in Otoko where we spent half our time ( and which I now drive past reasonably regularly!) which exists now only in the memories I and my family have. I also thought about growing up in Taupo - the place where my children spent a lot of time - which also now no longer exists. But my thoughts are that for me those places are as they always were - they exist in my memories and for my children the existence of their childhood haunts in Taupo will also be bright and bold in their memories. The places of my childhood will exist until there is no longer anyone to remember them - and in memory they are always places of fun, laughter and love.
2 comments:
Hiya
This poem evokes some of my feelings of "paradise lost" that has resonated through me over the last year. I find myself drifing around the back yard at Wheretia Street, sitting in the sun porch, and recalling snippets of childhood. These memories are then associated with people/events. I find myself wishing I could go back and savour what I did not appreciate or took for granted.
As the Dad of the big A, I'm now in the business of cultivating memories for him out of his childhood. I am pleased that Mum was very present and real for him. He'll take from it what he wants,and I'm happy with that.
Your home in Taupo was always just that - home. I loved spending time there with you and your family. The time and place have changed but as you say the memories linger and therefore the place is still real.The town of Taupo is so different now, people changed but our time was what made us. (if you know what I mean).. The "everyday" is what is important I reckon.
PS - a birthday is always a birthday complete with memories, love and tears.
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