At dVerse Sarah is hosting Poetics with an invitation to write about grandmothers.
dVerse Poets – Poetics – Grandmothers
“And when we said goodbye to one grandmother we said goodbye to them all.” Sherman J. Alexie
The Thin Thread We carry the past with us in little parcels of love or feelings, mostly in unconscious acts; mine is to always gather people, a reaction to the distances that have turned my life, my mother's mother is how she was told into my story, that she died sometime after VE Day and her long struggle with MS; and so we never met except in my mother's potted stories, no wonder that I love a mystery. My father's mother filled a room both in size and manner she was a formidable presence barking orders, laughing, always kind, always gathering her brood around her sagging laden table of love. We waved her goodbye for over 15, 000 kms and the rest of her short life. I have a child's image of her, A thin, frayed thread of connection to which I cling. Copyright 2023 ©Paul Vincent Cannon All Rights Reserved ®️
parallax 
we never met except in my mother’s potted stories – beautifully put…
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Thank you very much Rajani.
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The grandmother you lost through geography must be the hardest loss. Generational ties are so fragile.
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Yes, I didn’t realise so young, later I did and it hit hard, I agree Jane those ties are so fragile.
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What’s gone is gone forever. Memories aren’t the same, everybody remembers differently, sometimes in diametric opposition. Who can tell what really happened?
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Yes, though I’m happy with my version.
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Know what you mean. It’s how we reconcile ourselves to what we’ve lost.
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That’s it really – for me, the therapy of an internal narrative.
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🙂
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Beautiful images. 🙂
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Thank you very much indeed, a tough one though. 🙂
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You are welcome . 🙂
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Very poignant. That thread does take us back. When I look back at my life, it is most ofen the childhood years with grandparents that I hark back to.
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I think they are precious times, in my case so little due to the distance, but good threads. Thank you Sherry 🙂
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I know that thin, frayed thread of connection very well.
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So thin. My parents felt it deeply, but in the end they made the right decision to emigrate, but at a great cost to that thread.
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I’m sorry to hear that.
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Nothing comes cheap I’ve discovered.
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You are so right about that.
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To only have them as such thin memories, maybe it makes the memories even more precious
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I think it does Bjorn, it certainly reifies and sharpens them. Thank you.
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Memories of loved ones are delicate and treasured…preserved well in your poetic words.
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Thank you Lynn – I sure wanted that outcome, its all I have.
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Thanks for the lovely words (read with reading glasses on)
That grandmothers live on and on is wonderful. Blessings.
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Thank you Selma, yes, you paint a picture in reply, my pleasure indeed.
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Most heat touching poem❤️👌❤️
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Thank you so much Aruna ❤️
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Most welcome,dear!!❣️🙏🏻❣️
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I particularly love the beginning and the ending of this poem. They take us from the universal into the personal and back out to the universal again.
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I was wrestling with that, it was frustrating for a while but it turned out wellish in the end, thank you Sarah 🙂
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Just a beautiful insight into you in this poem
>
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Yes, a difficult one, but no regrets overall though.
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