Poetry Thursday's challenge this week was to create a poem based on a favorite line of a poem you've read. I absolutely ADORE the poem "Generations" by Pattiann Rogers. It starts out with this line: "They have been walking from the beginning" and several times in the poem this line appears: "They were walking".
I've been thinking a lot this week about family, what it means and what it is. This poem is the story of our family, based on the poem "Generations"
Walking
They have been walking from the beginning
Up the steps of a schoolhouse
His eyes following her every movement
As she played jacks with her friends
They walked together, hands entwined
Down an isle as husband and wife
And out of two hospital rooms
Bringing home bouncing baby girls
They walked slowly, their steps weighted
by a toddler and a baby on their hips
by the weight of a world at war
by the fear that this moment would be their last
They ran to each other, in a joyous reunion
Out of yet another hospital room
Another baby girl on her way
To a home filled with love and laughter
They walked in despair
Through the three broken marriages
Through broken hearts and shattered dreams
Through lives bruised by abuse
They walked with fear and prayer
Into a hospital sterile and cold
Where the shattered body of their daughter lay
In a coma for three months
And they walked with her out of the hospital too
They walked with joy and laughter
into a workshop where little hands played in sawdust
into a kitchen where she baked all the right things
and the dining room where they'd play games
And still they walked side by side
Watching the grandchildren grow up
and have children of their own
Pastoring a church
making an impact on their community
They walked with footsteps of compassion
into the nursing home where he lay
Feeding him his meals, sitting by his side
And just holding his hand
They walked with kleenexes into their hand
Into the church where he had once preached
To say their final goodbyes to the man they loved
The husband, the father, the grandpa, the friend
And still they walk
A family as diverse as it is large
They walk in laughter and in love
Growing closer together as the years go by.
Categories: Poetry, AEM, PT, Family, Grandpa
7 comments:
Amazing poem. I loved the transition through all phases of life with the one constant touchstone, that of love. :)
Oh Wow! Jana you have to print this out and give it to everyone at either Christmas or Thanksgiving. I absolutely love it and it so captures our family. This is just amazing! I hope you will at least share it on Thanksgiving even though I won't be there :(
Brian, Thanks!!!!!!
Amy, It'll probably be Christmas, that's when we all sat and cried together last year so I'll probably keep the tradition going.
you are talented my friend
thanks for sharing
lovely peom
My gosh! That was totally awesome! What a touching and profound poem. I agree with Amy.
I literally teared up reading this. It's such a beautiful expression of love and family. I lost my grandmother this year and this brought my thoughts back to her. Thank you for sharing it.
/sniffle
Beautiful ode to your grandparents.
/hugs
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