National Poetry Month 4 of 30: Building
April is National Poetry Month. Again this year, inspired by Mary Lee Hahn, I'm going to join other poetry bloggers (view links in sidebar) taking the challenge to share poetry each day during the month of April. For thirty days my hope is to write a new poem each day. The first two years I took this challenge I wrote any poem that found me. This year, however, I've decided to try to write a poem about an object each day. If you've read Billy Collins' poem, The Lanyard, you may have noticed the way he took an object to tell a much more meaningful story of his relationship with his mother. My hope is to find the deeper significance in the things around me.
Today is my son, John's, birthday. This week's poems have been focused on "objects of memory." You know the things we keep around our house more because there's a story attached to them than because they are of any use to us. Legos are exactly one of those things.
Happy birthday, John.
Building
Years ago
you'd spend hours
building
one Lego brick to another,
detailed instruction sheets
open on the floor,
each piece
snapping to another
making it bigger,
better.
Now the legos
tucked safely away,
red,
yellow,
green,
blue,
wait patiently
to be played with again.
For you,
those days
are long gone.
Now
you're busy
taking classes,
studying,
reading,
working hard.
Now
you build
bigger things.
Now
you're busy
building a life.
© Cathy L. Mere 2014
Today is my son, John's, birthday. This week's poems have been focused on "objects of memory." You know the things we keep around our house more because there's a story attached to them than because they are of any use to us. Legos are exactly one of those things.
Happy birthday, John.
Years ago
you'd spend hours
building
one Lego brick to another,
detailed instruction sheets
open on the floor,
each piece
snapping to another
making it bigger,
better.
Now the legos
tucked safely away,
red,
yellow,
green,
blue,
wait patiently
to be played with again.
For you,
those days
are long gone.
Now
you're busy
taking classes,
studying,
reading,
working hard.
Now
you build
bigger things.
Now
you're busy
building a life.
© Cathy L. Mere 2014
Our legoes are now with the grandchildren except for one box, so keep them. They'll be loved later, Cathy. Happy Birthday to your son. This is a lovely gift to him, building his life, too.
ReplyDeleteOh the legos and John... As I remember it though, John always looked at the completed project picture, but never read the directions on how to build it. He was totally amazing with them.. John Boy has definitely brightened all of our days.. A great poem about him!!!
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A special tribute to your son! Love the connection between building legos and building a life! And I'll bet someday there will be grandbabies to build with!
ReplyDeleteEveryone keeps wanting to throw our Legos away, but I won't let them! A beautiful poem! Well done!
ReplyDeleteFascinating. You thought you were going to write about objects, but you are creating a collection about people...family so far.
ReplyDeleteI admire your dedication to writing a poem a day for the month. Good luck! And choosing objects to focus your poems is a wonderful idea. And, as Mary Lee has pointed out, the poems are about people too. I'd like to see how it all works out. Keep us posted!
ReplyDeleteWhat a poignant poem, Cathy. You've gotten me all verklempt thinking about my own son's packed away lego.
ReplyDeleteYes! Sighing... That sound of legos. I call it Lego Music. Thank you, Linda, for giving all of us this memory. Happy birthday to both son and mother.
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