Today I am writing from a prompt at Poetics Asides: Never again
http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/2011/04/10/2011AprilPADChallengeDay10.aspx
NaPoWriMo Day #10
Never Again
There is so much that is never again
Childhood comes but once
Filled with Grandmothers, Grandfathers
Aunts, Uncles and cousins
At times it even seemed crowded
Riding the bicycle to the library
Wind through your hair
Totally free or at least
It felt totally free
Baseball in the vacant lot
Building forts and tea houses
From whatever material available
Each day filled with observing, learning
Then a young woman
Still learning every day
Learning to balance
Trying to have it all
Work, marriage
Then a child
A totally
Separate person
Who knew the time
Would be so short
To try to get it right
Things, that were
Would not always be
Instead I blinked
And found my life
Was passing
And that it would
Never be
As it was again
Like Rip Van Winkle
I slept through much of my life
A piece of driftwood
Floating down the river
Without much thought
Then left lonely
On the deserted beach
Gathered the odds and ends
Bits and pieces
I called my life
Followed old wagon tracks west
There were others who had gone before
Painters -- Georgia O'Keefe, Janet Lippencot
Writers --Peggy Pond Church, Mary Austin
And of course Mabel Dodge Luhan
Women who put their
Feet into the desert sand
Created a life in which
They could create
The days are numbered
But each will be
In the shape of the creator
Each will hold just enough room
To again learn something each day
This life would be
Something that fit
No more settling for
"hand me downs"
Never look back
At what is
Never again
