The Answer Lady

Gomma has been sharing her memories of growing up and of her family and so on with us for years.  Just recently she was musing about how many things were so vastly different in years past.  She was moved to write about them but wasn't sure where to start.   I suggested to her that she offer to be "The Answer Lady" for family members who had questions about the 'old days'.   And that she could write her answers and post them here on the blog for people to read.   She liked that and asked me to put up this notice.  

This is not to say, of course, that we won't be treated to more of her verse and stories

January!

Where had this warm day been wandering?
Above, in a sky of blue resembling May or June
The sun moves past the chimney and
Shines through the leafless trees.
The deck chair beckons, and a small bird
Sings repeatedly in the pine.
My busy cat returns, inquiringlyg seeming to say
"Are you just going to sit there?"
What to answer?
There is no other way except by pen and paper
To save this day.


GBP

Notes on a Napkin at the Bakery.

Near 7:00 AM

The universe is out beyond the whirling world

 

despite the fact we think it here.

Yet this table was once the center of my earth.

 

                      ******

 

Eating an egg-and-bacon bolo breakfast

illustrates the possible origin of the phrase:

"egg on your face".

 

                      *******

Every day's miracle:  God is here,

but He hasn't ordered yet.

 

GBP

After much too long an hiatus....She's back!

"Little Miss Muffet  sat on a tuffet,

eating her curds and whey

Along came the spiders, who wrapped up Miss Muffet

And carried her far away.

This could only happen in Oregon in August of 2010.

 

Please do not read this to little children.

Aunt Maureen when she was much younger, was mortified by Rudyard Kipling (!) when she read "How the Elephant got his trunk"....

She has travelled light ever since--bad pun--just to keep this all in the family......children have tender hearts, or at least they used to before they had games and I pods and movies, and who knows what all electronic devices to demonstrate--oh, I fear to imagine.

Love to all--back to the garden and the house.  Company is coming!!!!!!!!!!!yikes."

The Lament of Prisoner 015210

(Editor's aside--this integration of disparate things is so typical of Mom's ability to put

two and two together and get seven.  Great creativity.)

 

Incarcerated at my desk,

 

Barred from freedom

 

By facts and figures in

 

Black and white,

 

Sentenced to a task imposed by Law,

 

I struggled.

 

Removed from  the dungeon

 

For a short reprieve

 

I was near blinded

 

By the sunlight

 

I was longing for.

 

FREEDOM

 

BUT STILL THE SENTENCE STOOD.

 

I MUST RETURN.

 

One last glance was granted.

 

Graced with hope,

 

The tree tall beyond the fence

 

Blossomed White with promise--

 

Cherries in the future, when

 

The punishment was done.

 

GBP 3/24/10

 

Lullaby

All are at peace.

 

They sleep.

 

They neither mourn nor weep

 

Nor vigil keep.

 

If they should dream

 

May it be sweet.

 

The song repeat .

 

Sleep, baby, sleep.

3-10

                                               

Another Dimension

The shadows
Wakened by the morning sun
Have thrown off the blanket of the night.
Stretching, they reach out across the lawn
Touching for just awhile
The far fence, the dormant shrubs
Whose hidden blossoms wait for Spring.


Again tonight the moon may pass,
And let them stretch out on the grass
So quietly that none will see
But owls and crows, and maybe
Me.

GBP
January 2010

January Afternoon

The raggedy tree,

Old Doug Fir,

Standing high above the land

Flings its boughs about

Holding on to earth below it,

Roots spread out with only

surface depth for tenuous purchase,

Is showing us the  history of the winds,

Written by the bare patches

On the long straight pole.

It towers over all the woods about it

And marks the road, and reads the moving air

As those who live below mark the rain,

And wonder when this storm will pass

And spring will come again.

GBP 1/13/10