Tag: Nostalgia

She Sits Alone and Thinks

She Sits Alone and Thinks

by alexforshaw ♥ 2 Comments

Day 16 of 30 Days of Poetry

Here we are, on the homeward leg. Past the halfway point now and heading to the finish line. I’m enjoying this writing prompt I came up with very much. Who knows what December might bring: keep an eye out!

A single poppy, flat as if it has been pressed and preserved, lying across a neutral background
She sits alone and thinks of days
Old voices echo in her ears
While feelings light upon her face
Then fall among the dust of years

She sits alone and thinks of one
An empty space within her heart
Reminds her of a time far gone
A promise that was torn apart

She sits alone and thinks of now
Of all that she's seen come to pass
Of when she used to dream of how
Her beau would come back to his lass

She sits alone and thinks of him
The news that broke confirmed her fears
That fate would snatch him on a whim
Her smile is brittle through her tears
Going Back

Going Back

by bjforshaw ♥ 1 Comment

There’s a saying that might appear familiar to readers of Terry Pratchett: “You can’t cross the same river twice”. If it wasn’t for the clue in his books that the obvious interpretation is not the intended one then I don’t think I’d have worked it out. I’m too literal a thinker to have realized, unaided, that the river here refers to the water rather than its course. I’m not going to take the metaphor too far and start considering the water cycle through evaporation and rainfall by which the same water molecules could be crossed again. For the purposes of this metaphor, once the water has flowed downstream it must be considered “lost” as different water flows down, replacing it. The river crossing in this instance is an event in space-time: the time coordinate is key to understanding.

So far, so what? Is any of this relevant? Well,… yes. You see, I sometimes get nostalgic. I recall places in terms of past events and some of those events evoke memories of happiness. I feel a longing to experience a particular event again that going back to the same place in the present can’t satisfy: it’s not the same river.

This unsatisfied longing to go back to an event – a situation – in the past can be so overwhelmingly powerful that I feel a profound sense of loss because there is no way to return, wind back the clock. This can be a problem when I find myself in the same place doing the same thing, whether it’s socializing, playing darts or watching a band. Association triggers memories of the historical event and I can be left feeling that there is something missing, some vital piece of the puzzle that would complete the picture.

So I’m left with my memories, replaying the experiences, going back in my mind instead of in time. Maybe I can’t cross that river again, but it will always be there.

Breaking Chains

Breaking Chains

by bjforshaw ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Growing up, the corner shop
Was like an Aladdin’s cave.
Exciting exotic riches
To be had for pocket change.

Each shop had unique delights:
A quarter of some sweet treat
Or the latest comic book.
You knew where to find it all.

Every town had character:
Independent retailers,
Established eighteen-something,
Or at least before the war.

The cafe on the high street
Where my grandmother drank tea,
The bookshop I frequented:
Many happy hours for me.

Most of those shops are gone now,
Replaced by the soulless clones
That have spread just like a plague:
Uniformity rules now.

I often think I could stand
In any town without knowing
Where I might be in the land:
Everywhere now looks the same.

Mall culture dominating
With the old guard dead, passed on.
Reflecting in nostalgia,
I regret the march of time.

In Camberley or Wigan
The global brands have stolen
The identity that once
Made each town special to me.