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| Grandpa Irwin's Garden |
Grandma Bert’s Hill
I stand in awe
At the grace,
As countless times before
I had bore witness of the breath taking glory,
Of the elevated place
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| Bert and Irwin |
The house on the hill.
It is old…
(built by my great-grandfather whom I did not know)
And was a piece of him that survived
Long after his death…
It was peace and home
To my family and I.
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| Party on the Hill |
I reflect briefly:
There’s a hill down the street
Next one over,
It holds on it the old Church…
Grandma Bert’s church which she
Grandma Bert’s church which she
Purchased a few years back.
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| Typical Sunday Dinner |
The cemetery chimes
With the echoing of a trumpet…
In my memory…
The fallen call out
As the people remember
In the mountains.
You could hear the instruments
Of the mind
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| Bertha's House on the Hill, Leon NY Built by her first husband Carl Harvey |
Cry…
As my family died
One by one---
And were planted here on this new hills
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| Dog Drinking |
Domain.
6-feet under, never to be seen again
Home on our top of the hill
One street over had been abandoned.
Now I stood alone.
I loved and only a memory of my family
Remains--
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| Bertha |
So they don’t get trampled under hoof and foot.
Respect is only owed to the living
The dead have no feeling
They can suffer no more
The lucky.
I…
Them!
Soaring back
I am at the location of the hill
No longer my home
Now another family inhabits
Our domain
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| Bertha Millman-Harvey-Milspaw Born: Oct 15, 1908 Died: Aug 18, 2003 Great Grandmother |
Happily.
I smile…
It’s ok…
“Everything’s going to be alright” --
I tell myself
In a futile attempt to
Comfort
 |
| Winter Plowing |
The sadness.
The green turns yellow
Autumn has fallen
once again.
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| Family Reunion |
Still…..
Stand at guard
They needed to protect a sacred grounds…
 |
| Herby in Winter |
The presence of life and home
A sheltered but preserved existence
Stands tall
On the face of the mountainous
Beast that witnessed the fall
Of her own
Family.
Here there was freedom.
A representation
Of something lost
Today…
A memory of…
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| Amish Neighbors moved on property in 1960 Friend and Elder Enis Miller Died: March 5, 2004 @ 67 Anna Miller his wife survived him. |
Me!
The life of a Doe…
Dear--
That once freely bounced unbound
Through the fields
Of life
Existing…
The Valley: or a vision of Velma’s Field
I glance from the circle
Of my freedom and peace
On the green, green grasses of home…
Now a trespasser
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| Cherry Creek: My Home |
Unwelcome.
Towards the back I see
The park
Where I had once played
As a child
There was freedom and certainty
Life was good
 |
| Velma Harvey Milks Born: March 24, 1930 Died: May 29, 2006 Teacher, Aunt, Friend |
At this location.
So much has gone and passed
I see the mountains
Where grandma Bert had lived
“Had lived?”
How awkward and unpleasant that does seem
To my mind
Time can be so unkind
Stealing away
Our friendships
Our relationships
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| Joyce in Living room |
Our hope!
A Sisyphean conquest has
Been my nightmare
To endure
Aspirations for a better future
Give way to fear…
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| Velma in small Library she loved books like me |
Will I always be alone?
I walk…
Solitary walker
Without a destination
My path had been so clear before
The path not chosen
I suffer.
The trees so tall
The creek snaking through them
With the rumblings and babblings
Of a bubbling incessant fool
Chirping in my ear
My companion
Wants to leave
He’s hungry
And thinks the process
Of this annual procession
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| Velma winter in the valley feeding birds |
Is silly.
Cherry Towers blended with exotic exoteric fruits
Of efforts
Now gone
Blow in the wind
But are no longer heard.
Green is the structure of life
Here the sun only yields
To the brilliancy of the stars and majestic moon
The summer warmth
Only takes heed to the refreshing winds
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| Velma at her 40 year teaching anniversary/ retirement |
Of a winter frost…
That means its time to cuddle in front
Of the fire-place with someone special
Snuggling in a huddled mass of human acceptance…
Life is unbound and free…
Luckily the cold of being on the outside
Only lasts a while
And soon the
Alienation
Will end.
Assured
Sheltered deep within my breast
A voice whispers to me:
“I am… and I care.”
I had a home…
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| Aunt Velma |
Country roads please take me back
Back in time
To the place and people where I belong.
I want to be
Be,
With the posterity
That
Felt
Something.
A pastor…
Pastoral view…
Of life
My life
Sets me free from
The suffering
That the annoyance of my counter parts
Insensitivity
Causes
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| Velma, Joyce and Kay (neighbor) |
I have been
And will
Be
In the nature
of tossed and hurled,
Up-rooted,
Unfurled
And utterly desperate
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| Velma snoozing |
I admit that I am an isolate
That is unduly…
Homeless and homesick…
I need a place…
For me…
Again!
As a legacy smoke fades something more appears:
|
| Home |
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