Loose Leaf Notes

testing comments 1 - 2- 3.

I love that poem. It is one I can relate to!

"Am I too old to skip or sit on the sidewalk?"

Oh, no, no, no! Now you are getting somewhere near old enough to look for a new metaphor, to go from Peter Pan to this poem:

Warning
by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and a pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We will have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old and start to wear purple.

See? When you get old enough, you may not only sit on the sidewalk, but also learn to spit! I'm all for making make up for the sobriety of my youth. When you are ready, I invite you to join my red hat group, Plum Crazy Red Hat Mamas, which you may read about here: http://plumcrazyredhatmamas.blogspot.com/

I was actually thinking about that poem when I wrote that line. I don't care much for spitting, but I do like to skip, something you just don't see mature adults do that much of.

I love this poem.
I never grew up and probably (hopefully) never will...

I think you are the type of person who always sees the fairy dust and always will. I am somewhat that way too, a lot of the time.

I can't imagine why would anyone want to abandon our childishness! Peter Pan's a wonderful myth and I hope parents are still sharing it with their children. After all, we all need our own Neverland...it's the place where our souls live. By the way, isn't it strange how the word "childishness" came to have such a negative connotation?

My favorite line: "I understood the importance of the shadow
and taught my sons to sew"

:)
~S

I am very glad to be here from Michele. This poem is worth visiting your blog and more. In fact I think, it can me set to a song. It has that kindof rhythm and melody.

Very powerful and thoughtful! I always did like Peter Pan!

I still skip occasionally, Colleen, so we can do it together.

Spitting isn't my thing, either, but I'm glad it's in the poem. In the summer of 1998, when I was exhausted from 24/7 caring for my mother whose Alzheimer's was advancing, the first-ever Alzheimer's Camp came to my rescue. With one-on-one counselors, they took twelve AD patients to camp for a week. Mother died in 2004, but I have a video of her that a film crew put together, showing the dozen campers swimming, dancing, playing games, smiling, enjoying themselves. One man and my mother are the only speaking campers on the video because they were still able to speak more or less coherently. The video ends with Mom saying something like, "We all just do the best we can, right?"

Now to explain the spitting. There were contests at the camp, and every single camper won an Olympics-type medal for something. My dignified 80-year-old mother was so proud of hers that she wore it for months afterwards, sitting in her recliner wearing the wide, red-white-n-blue ribbon around her neck, with her award dangling at the bottom of the V. She even wore it to church. I still have her medal and stop to look at it once in a while. And what contest did she win, you ask? The one for watermelon seed spitting! She managed to spit a watermelon seed farther than any of the others. Obviously, somewhere along the way, my mother learned to SPIT.

Colleen: I read poetry occasionally (often, to the children, but it is a limited selection since they know what they want) and even less frequently write my own. That piece has just resonated more than anything I've read in a *long* time. It's a wonderful, really hairtinglingly wonderful piece!

Michele, I am sure, would agree with me. I am sure that is why she sent me.
N.

Thank you, Breadbox. It's a fun poem to read and I got so much off my chest with it!

Bonnie, I just adore that story. I'm going to start practicing (next summer?).

I LOVE this poem Colleen...There is so much about the Peter Pan story and all that goes with it that has ALWAYS touched me deeply...And your Poem does the same.

Brilliant and wonderful. I'm fully in support of never growing up - or certainly not much!

Since you are visiting my Plum Crazy blog, Colleen, be sure to see this post: http://plumcrazyredhatmamas.blogspot.com/2007/04/how-to-correctly-weigh-yourself.html

That is absolutely my favorite poem of the year!!
Do you have a recording of your recitation?
Nancy (Nana)

No recording on that one. Too long for Youtube, I suspect. If you lived nearby you could hear me read it at the third Saturday Spoken Word open mic. Tonight we are reading poems about punctuation and more.

I booted up the old computer and what a fun way to start my morning.I'll fly throughout the day now thanks to your poem thanks

your words are marvelous and express so much of my "neverland" experience. I am 52, but a child still lives at my address.

What a great poem with wonderful imagery. And don't we all wish - at various times - for that eternal youth? But there's something to be said for the wisdom of growing older.

I love your poem, Colleen, and I love to skip too!

wonderful, colleen....

'peter pan' is my son's favorite book right now....we've read it 3 times thus far. your poem has both the playfulness and the 'haunting' of the story.... there's much meaning underlying the words, just as in the book!

love, love, love it!