tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post1251941330731322280..comments2023-10-31T15:39:09.651+01:00Comments on box elder: This weekLucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-5816801860675120702011-09-09T11:49:27.825+02:002011-09-09T11:49:27.825+02:00Thank you all of you for such lovely, eloquent, th...Thank you all of you for such lovely, eloquent, thoughtful comments. I am fortunate to have such good friends.Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-13238454142524804292011-09-09T09:31:09.105+02:002011-09-09T09:31:09.105+02:00It's hard to witness those ahead of us in the ...It's hard to witness those ahead of us in the queue as they plummet into the abyss toward which we all move. These are winter thoughts, and I think that when change occurs as we gird our loins for the long dark months ahead, it has more power to unsettle.<br /><br />My dad visited us in Cardiff and brought a box of things he wanted us to have. A watch, some old coins, a bit of this and that. I thought he was having a clean-out and put them aside to deal with when I had more time. Just a few months later he was dead, and afterwards I realised that his arrival-with-gifts had been a part of his tying up of loose ends because he'd felt the coming of his demise. Yesterday a much-loved elderly friend arrived here with a box of significant treasures, and my heart clenches because I fear the message encoded in the gift. <br /><br />You write beautifully about change. I'm a decade ahead of you, and I can say that such feelings intensify with time. But then again I prefer the bitter-sweet of good chocolate to the cloying sweetness of confectionary, and one of the bonuses of aging is that every pleasure is the better for the sense that such things are temporal, and one must 'be in the moment' and enjoy experiences to fullest as they may not happen again. All through the three months of my retrospective exhibition I tried to impress every last detail of the experience into my memory, because there cannot be another such exhibition for ten, fifteen, perhaps even twenty years. Ergo I may never live to see another retrospective. That wintry thought brought each part of the summer into sharp relief and intensified the flavours. I've never felt quite that way before, and it's both wonderful and a tad unnerving. <br /><br />The poppies are lovely. Dead to all intents and purposes, but packed with thousands of seeds with the potential for renewal. A good analogy for existence, with the seeds within representing our deeds, our ideas and whatever we manage to leave behind that will have the power to continue contributing. Many leave children, but I shall be leaving art. Wintry thoughts indeed, yet oddly comforting once I get used to the fact... if ever one can... that the abyss looks a damned sight closer than it once did!Clive Hicks-Jenkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00573698513351018726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-54927685979783441492011-09-08T18:01:06.302+02:002011-09-08T18:01:06.302+02:00This post about your 88 year old friend was almost...This post about your 88 year old friend was almost too close for comfort. Beautifully written as always. The poppy seed pods are wonderful structures. I have collected a large jar full of seeds from mine.Annehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04979547096244105508noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-45419826879217980402011-09-07T22:41:02.706+02:002011-09-07T22:41:02.706+02:00Death and birth, my occupation gone, a new decade ...<i>Death and birth, my occupation gone, a new decade ahead Odd clenching sensations somewhere round the solar plexus - fear, excitement, longing, despair?</i><br /><br />It can feel like the whole world is rocking around us. Writing helps to work things out. We can live only in the moment, and even if we look back and with some added perspective perceive exaggeration - that's what it was like at the moment. Best to ride the feelings out, write them out too, and then it's a new day. Wine and sorbet are handy for life's ups and downs too :)HKatzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17653570160517335758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-90212162789818802332011-09-07T15:38:27.313+02:002011-09-07T15:38:27.313+02:00birth, death, the changing of lives and the changi...birth, death, the changing of lives and the changing of the seasons. You're right to express your feelings as you feel them while at the same time trying not to upset othersCrafty Green Poethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02486633917197181851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-5090092706996132162011-09-05T01:43:30.158+02:002011-09-05T01:43:30.158+02:00Those little jars of poppy, packed with sleep: mou...Those little jars of poppy, packed with sleep: mournful but suited...<br /><br />So often deaths and births come close together. I can remember taking babies to funerals, and how after an old woman's funeral it seemed so right for people to gather around the little flame of life that is a newborn, the dead woman's great-grandchild.<br /><br />Pax tecum, Lucy.marly youmanshttp://www.marlyyoumans.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-18675005672442119252011-09-04T23:22:40.249+02:002011-09-04T23:22:40.249+02:00Hi Lucy
I feel like a rare and minor commet in th...Hi Lucy <br />I feel like a rare and minor commet in the starscape of commentators, as I know I come round only rarely.<br />I just wanted to say there is so much I can appreciate and relate to in this post - especially as a recently retired teacher saying a fond goodbye to all the accoutrements of lessons and lesson-planning and memories of faces and voices. <br />I aslo love the sculptural poppies: such a beautiful and complex set of images.<br />Happy retirement!Lucashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07642126053527835870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-41576883424219353372011-09-04T21:16:24.964+02:002011-09-04T21:16:24.964+02:00Yes, I am struck that much of life seems to load t...Yes, I am struck that much of life seems to load the heart with a troubled heaviness and use twists and turns to force decisions. You make use of wine and sorbet where I would reach for a craft-brewed ale. Uff, do I understand you when you write about the good-bye to your job. The important thing in my eyes is to drink the wine or the ale together with a loved one. I thank my lucky stars that I have friends with whom I can talk about death and birth and the vagaries of daily life. Congratulations on the book photos! The poppies seem to be deep in conversation, perfect for a book of poetry. Hurrah Lucy!Rouchswalwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01393987883437907945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-26554212916937101902011-09-04T10:22:51.416+02:002011-09-04T10:22:51.416+02:00so much change can make a person feel disorientate...so much change can make a person feel disorientated and giddy. Like you've spun round once too often and your head is in the wrong place<br /><br />but yes, life goes forward and change is inevitable and usually, in my experience, for the betterjuliahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04283759962211889152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-26553500946115113362011-09-03T23:02:39.221+02:002011-09-03T23:02:39.221+02:00Thanks again.
BB - boxian, I like it... :~)
Joe ...Thanks again.<br /><br />BB - boxian, I like it... :~)<br /><br />Joe - I like sepia, but don't often find a reason to use it.<br /><br />Zephyr - sorry, I wasn't meaning to dismiss or rubbish your response, which honours me. Thank you.<br /><br />Hliza - that was beautiful, thanks.<br /><br />Jean - there are very good reasons to buy Teresa's book, if her past ones are anything to go by. having my photo on it is the icing on the cake!Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-55291891902562934102011-09-03T22:55:50.729+02:002011-09-03T22:55:50.729+02:00The photos, although grave in tone, are so beautif...The photos, although grave in tone, are so beautiful, which somehow seems to me to bode very well for all of it. <br /><br />And another reason I must buy that forthcoming book of poems...Jeanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08690685768980280402noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-35895702885581689782011-09-03T22:14:43.093+02:002011-09-03T22:14:43.093+02:00I felt what you feel when my most beloved aunt pas...I felt what you feel when my most beloved aunt passed away about this time last year. I was involved from the moment she was barely breathing, then she puffed her last breath till the part when her body was cleansed for burial..I witnessed them all. That left me mentally preparing myself that I will be there..my time will come anytime, just like anybody else in the world. And I realised I'm not afraid of death anymore.<br /><br />Talking about the baby's arrival..we just realised too after visiting my FIL's grave recently that exactly 25 years after he died, my son was born..as if somebody wants us to keep remembering him even after he's gone for so long.<br /><br />Life's ironic, isn't it? Hope you guys feel better..as they say..life goes on.HLizahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04501423875033391870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-66872899649877731102011-09-03T20:03:53.942+02:002011-09-03T20:03:53.942+02:00i did not think there was any histrionics, Lucy......i did not think there was any histrionics, Lucy...nor exaggeration. i feel it's a touching, sensitive post i can relate to on many levels.zephyrhttp://www.thegarden.typepad.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-79777625474937821682011-09-03T18:53:39.130+02:002011-09-03T18:53:39.130+02:00Just recently I find that repetition with variatio...Just recently I find that repetition with variations or even without it is appealing. The poppies in black and white or is it sepia make me want to see more images of the sort, coming up again and again, at random.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06972049290586377462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-71400758042876187092011-09-03T17:29:02.029+02:002011-09-03T17:29:02.029+02:00All that clenching stuff: I was going to suggest i...All that clenching stuff: I was going to suggest it sounds like the totally unexpected byproducts of getting old, but you're not old at all. Back then I had another decade of improved ski-ing in front of me. What I wasn't prepared for, post-seventy, was a rapidly increasing inability to deal with stress at levels I would once have pooh-poohed at.<br /><br />As to being histrionic, is it true or not? That's really all that matters. Being depressed, feeling vulnerable are experiences that demand tightly controlled - and much revised - writing and the likelihood of getting it not quite right is very strong. Leading to further dissatisfaction. But as you can see most people respond as human beings rather than literary critics and the defects get swept away in sympathy.<br /><br />I'm not a great quoter of WVs but I am transfixed by the one lurking beneath what I'm writing: boxian. An adjective that speaks to me with great insistence: is this comment up to boxian standards? Switching to the noun, am I worthy to be called a boxian? Is clenching the new boxian? Seems I've come to the right place.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-12175749722091151212011-09-03T08:47:56.768+02:002011-09-03T08:47:56.768+02:00Thanks for your kind words, and I'm glad you l...Thanks for your kind words, and I'm glad you like the poppies.<br /><br />Reading back over this it seems to me a little histrionic and exaggerated, nothing is imperilled and there is no despair. One of the problems of such writing is it comes from the moment, and I am loath to elicit inappropriate sympathy for what are indeed, simply the ups and downs of life. <br /><br />The other problem is that as this blog is open and not anonymous, occasionally people from the sphere of real life I might be writing about do read it, and I feel I have to be a bit circumspect and discrete, which can come across as elliptical and over-dramatic.<br /><br />In fact I have quite a strong hope bordering on faith that good things are just over the horizon, and always consider myself blessed. I suppose I sometimes fear I might be keeping them over the horizon instead of living them now...<br /><br />Thank you again, though, for your kindness.Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09764296105901909328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-44730902434466153852011-09-03T05:56:42.402+02:002011-09-03T05:56:42.402+02:00change can be frightening and exciting in equal me...change can be frightening and exciting in equal measure. I shared your feeling of release when the new english teacher who is to take over my courses called me.(It is the person we suspected , by the way!)Rosiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12211663940952195703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-79252453754275360452011-09-03T04:06:45.596+02:002011-09-03T04:06:45.596+02:00Ah, these ups and downs of life - you write so tou...Ah, these ups and downs of life - you write so touchingly of these and your sepia poppies are just perfect for this. Thank you again for all the joy, sadness and beauty offered here so freely. Wishing a brighter happier day as time moves on. Really it's all about time's march, isn't it?marja-leenahttp://www.marja-leena-rathje.infonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-7699724799462175262011-09-03T03:45:46.911+02:002011-09-03T03:45:46.911+02:00Oh, Lucy...
such a touching post.
i would love to ...Oh, Lucy...<br />such a touching post.<br />i would love to sit or walk with you and chat...and yes, talk a bit, about the thoughts that rise to the surface while reading this. i think if and when we have that happy hour together, we won't have to articulate much about these things...because of these dear blogs, our hearts already know so much...so we will, i think, look, listen, click our cameras and see the sky, poppies, and sea as "oldish", comfortable friends.<br /><br />And, as Jon would say, "<i>Awesome</i> cool about your photo!"zephyrhttp://www.thegarden.typepad.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37070024.post-67134229627340162162011-09-03T00:25:50.466+02:002011-09-03T00:25:50.466+02:00You've been through a lot, haven't you? H...You've been through a lot, haven't you? Heart-tugging stuff, eh? Were I there, and you permitted it, I would gather you in a hug, until you couldn't stand it anymore.<br /><br />The images of the poppy pods are just right for this post, poignant without being melancholy, full of life-to-be even while representing a withering. They look like pieces of jewelry; old tarnished silver fobs. I like them, would love to have a bundle of them for a crystal vase. I find the notion of the contrast pleasing.<br /><br />There is beauty in the plain, the dessicated, the sere, the dying and the disintegrating. These things, too, have an important place in life.<br /><br />Good post, Lucy. Provokes much thinking; thank you.The Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04846997590157958766noreply@blogger.com