This is a melancholy sort of poem, but just so y’all know, I am not sad. In fact I am very much at peace and I have great hope for the future. I do, however, often look longingly at the way things used to be. I think we all tend to do that. I hope you enjoy the poem.
Those Times Ago
Eyes closed, I smiled and imagined
A full moon hanging low in the sky
Looking like a shiny pearl button
On a dandy cowboy’s shirt
Sequin stars glittered
On a blouse of blue-black silk
While in the distance cattle lowed
And coyotes yipped and howled
When I opened my eyes
It all faded to cold hard truth
The hot dry grass on my neck
And burning tears I wouldn’t let fall
City traffic whirred nearby
Distant sirens pierced the night
A neighbor screamed angrily
At her laughing children
I gazed up at the dingy sky
Closed my eyes and tried to recall
Those times so long ago
When hope still lived within me
Times when stars twinkled
The man in the moon smiled
And parents, tired from their day
Murmured and chuckled softly
Gliding in the old wooden swing on the porch
Smiling, looking forward to tomorrow
While in the moon-shadow of a tree
Children tittered secret laughter
I wondered when the world had changed
And wished we could go back
To when life was simple; those times ago
When hope was more than just a word
Copyright © 2011 C. Mashburn
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Mary said
Love the last stanza. It seems life never gets simpler, only more and more complex; but we can still yearn….and remember.
charlesmashburn said
I think it’s one of those you-don’t-know-what-you-got-til-it’s-gone things.
claudia said
i hear you in this…somehow the world and life seems to get more and more complex and complicated..not easy to find our way in it..
charlesmashburn said
It seems to be spinning out of control, and I fear it’s spinning in the wrong direction.
Susan L Daniels said
I wondered when the world had changed
And wished we could go back
To when life was simple; those times ago
When hope was more than just a word
I don’t know that the world has changed so much as we have, and our perspectives of it. Great poem.
charlesmashburn said
I think the world is what we have allowed it to become.
kelly said
I feel this way, too, sometimes. I think we have yet to catch up with technology, but we will. And I always, always, believe in hope.
charlesmashburn said
There is definitely always hope!
Linda Kruschke said
Charles, I don’t think this was too melancholy at all. But perhaps that is because I have been wishing lately that we could go back to a simpler time. Peace, Linda
charlesmashburn said
I often wish I’d lived in the old west.
brian miller said
dang…aint that the truth man….i miss front porch living and casual conversation while hte kids play….we had it growing up but….nice touches though like hte button ona cowboy shirt…cool write man…i feel you…
charlesmashburn said
There is much realism in this, in the respect that I remember those evenings and nights. Us kids running around playing; the adults playing cards or dominoes. And the real special times were when they’d play guitars and sing on the front porch. I can remember standing in the yard, watching and listening. Wonderful times!
leahJlynn said
I agree, At times I wish for simpler times as well. Thanks for allow us into your memories
charlesmashburn said
Thank you, Leah!
ayala said
Nostalgic and beautiful..I wonder if the world was better then….
charlesmashburn said
It’s really hard to say what’s better. There are many good things in both worlds.
Mama Zen said
You had me with pearl button on a cowboy shirt!
charlesmashburn said
Yes’m. I love that line!
Thank you!
Laurie Kolp said
If only we could see through children’s eyes and laugh with them, huh?
charlesmashburn said
I think we can.
Laurie Kolp said
= )
Gay Reiser Cannon said
What a good poem Charles. I wrote one with the same theme for today, but it was awful. I ditched it for another at the last minute. Yours is so right, and I’m wondering why we’re all feeling like kindness is gone, hope has fled, and trust in one another has died.
charlesmashburn said
Personally, I think the answer is obvious.
kaykuala said
Complications and provocations seemed to make the world go round.Was it a wonderful world before! Nicely Charles!
Hank
charlesmashburn said
Thanks, Hank!
Tony said
Some lovely lines here which capture something we all feel we want, but I’m not sure that we’d like it too much if we got it.
The world has changed – but sometimes we forget that the simpler world our parents, grandparents, great grandparents etc lived in was, in many ways, much harder than ours. Their lives were more physically demanding for one thing – and simple tasks that we can achieve in minutes used to take hours of back-breaking labour.
charlesmashburn said
Yesterday, I heard that 46% percent of the people in this country are obese. Maybe the physical demands and those hours of back-breaking labor weren’t such bad things?
Polly Robinson said
Such beautiful words, Charles, ‘Those times so long ago
When hope still lived within me’ ~ lovely
charlesmashburn said
Thank you, Polly! I’m glad you like it!
jenneandrews said
I too suffer from nostalgia and even, being trapped in the past probably because my immediate reality, when I look at it directly, sucks. But… that idea of “beautiful sadness” is germane here. To me this weaves a host of cliches together when you are clearly capable of much, much more, perhaps because of the impetus of looking back at too much. I wonder what it would look like if you worked with but one of these reveries? xxxj
charlesmashburn said
Well, my advice as to your immediate reality is don’t spend a lot of time looking directly at it!
As for me doing something with one of the host of cliches in this poem, I don’t tend to do such things. I’m retty simplistic when it comes to my poetry; I just write what comes out of my silly old head, and there ya go. But I do appreciate the comment and suggestion!
Thank you, Jenne!
charlesmashburn said
Reblogged this on Marbles In My Pocket ~ The Official Blog of Charles L. Mashburn ~ Poems, Short Stories, and random thoughts from the author of "Be Still… and know that I am God" and commented:
On the lighter side, I was thinking about an upcoming multi-class reunion, and thought; We gotta stop doing this. I can’t remember the name of a person I just met, and somebody–a bunch of somebodies–comes up to me at one of these reunions and says, “Bet you don’t know who I am.” It gets worse every year! Yep, I long for the good old days, when everybody knew my name… and I knew theirs.