Wednesday 17 June 2015

Catching up face-to-face




Friendships and their trajectories have been on my mind lately.  Reconnected recently with a school friend after years, and another one shared some old photos, and this poem came along.

Talking of friendships, some of the most supportive, most nourishing,  happen in the virtual world. Today I am over at the Cafe Writer Denise Covey's where we are talking poetry, and a shared love of books and coffee.  





I wish sometimes that you and I
lived in the same city, close by,
your garden steps just a short walk
from my porch end of the block,
maybe just a fence in between
or not even that, unbroken green
under our feet, lush, ankle-high.


Then I would stand at your back door
and knock in code, call you by your
old private names, known just to friends;
and we’d be out in a few seconds
our shoes  half laced, our hair undone
trailing free behind as we would run
back to the hilltop like before.


We’ve left those winding lanes for good,
those long lost alleyways of childhood -
the bike trails to the picnic spots,
the games of tag in vacant lots,
the building of castles in thin air,
the heat haze and the midday glare
that friendship easily withstood.


We speak quite often, you and I,
we laugh and talk, and we get by,
dredge out the memories and then check
who among us has a clearer deck;
we’ve cobbled back the friendships somehow
though we’re in different time-zones now,
continents connected through Wi-Fi.


But I still wish that I, one day,
might walk down that far alleyway
where you now live, and quietly knock;
you’d come to the door and we’d talk
face to face once more after years,
without wires and plastic barriers,
till there’s nothing else left to say.



Do you sometimes feel like that?  That you want to go back and walk those lanes that led you to your old friends?  



19 comments:

  1. Great interview over at Denise's place!

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    1. Thanks, Michelle..Denise's places are magic! love them :)

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    2. Loved having you at my place Nila. You can knock on my door any time. Would be lovely to chat about writing, books, poetry while sipping our coffees. :-)

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    3. Thank you for having me over Denise! Lovely being there...someday I am going to land up on your porch :-)

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  2. The poem is good
    Tho sad at times
    Would I go back
    not on this dime

    They were good
    but not always kind
    With that thought
    here's my rhyme

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    1. I'd go back selectively only...both people/time....thanks for the rhyme. Always great to have a poetic comment :)

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  3. Caught you at Denise's blog earlier!
    I moved around so much when I was a kid that I lost track of a lot of friends. I still keep up with a few from high school and college. Funny, when we do meet up, it's like no time has passed. The only difference is that I have taken a very different path from my friends.

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    1. Ditto...victim of too much movement too :) and also that seamless picking up of threads when catching up after years. The differences to be celebrated, the similarities to wonder at...yeah, def resonates!

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  4. I sometimes wish I could go back, just for the times we shared, but the other stuff, not so much. Her friendship is what made the time bearable. She was lovely, and I do have many lovely memories. Lovely words to capture those moments!

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    1. A time machine allowing us selective travel back into good times, and good times only, should have been standard issue in a just world! :-)

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    2. You know, I'm happiest now with all my current friends, real and virtual. And I hope to meet up with virtual friends one day. :-)

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    3. You/we should plan a RFW/WEP alumni/a reunion sometime Denise and Yolanda :-)

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    4. I was thinking that as I typed Nila. And psst, Yolanda and I are in talks re the revival of WEP. Excited? :-/

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    5. Double thumbs up and happy dance!

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  5. What a lovely poem! Sadly, my old friends and I never talk any more. I've made new ones. :)

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    1. Sometimes it is easier to forge new connections than revive the old faded ones...so long as we can call someone friend it doesn't matter new or old :)

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