I just packaged up a book of poems (to send out to family) that was put together by my cousin Deb for her Mom, Betty. Betty wrote the poems and I think used them to deal with grief and the pain of being so far away from family. Still, some of the poems are really funny.
In one she speaks of my Aunt Marge. I called her Gee Gee and she was a lifetime school teacher and a bit prickly on occasion.
Were you a flower (for Marge)
"Were you a flower
You might be
A tender yellow buttercup
With sunny petal holden up
Its face for bee to come and sup
But were reverse
The circumstance
And it should be your mettle
To be a weed I think
Perhaps you'd serve as stinging netle."
Betty Oller
My Aunt Betty cracked me up. In one short poem she summed up my dear Ant Gee Gee. we all loved her but she was a bit prickley.
Betty used to walk and memorize scripture and poems. The great Robert Frost recited his Poem "The Gift Outright" from memory at the innaguration of Kennedy when his notes containing the poem "Dedication"w were blown around.
Lavonne's Mom made kids memorize a few poems and many at her funeral would come up in small groups and start reminiscing and then a poem would break out. What a gift.
Betty knew who the poet Laureate each year and also knew a bit about some of their work.
I think there is wisdom there about the arts and how they help us work through. You can get mad but to relieve stress it helps to hammer out a creation...in wood, stone or words. Betty chose words.
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3 comments:
Ahhhh, I miss her so much and now I am crying! Okay, maybe not crying but my eyes are quite misty! I really do miss her a lot. She seemed so simple and sweet but underneath it all was such amazing wisdom and wit. She knew what it was that would hit the fan...didn't she!?!?
I remember, for a while there, every Christmas, everyone had to do some sort of talent show type thing (whether playing an instrument, or whatever), and the one thing that she always made us do was to have someone recite this.
So true how creating something can relieve many of lifes crazieness and stress. I must find something more creative than writting in the smow while I go #1, or maybe not.
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