Skip to main content

Friday Poetry- The Gathering Poem

Today, I'm sharing a poem that I discovered in one of my notebooks, waiting patiently for me to return. That is often the fate of the words we capture within these pages. They wait for our return and the possibility of rediscovery...

 In this poem I am reflecting upon those family times when we gather together to share a meal and recount the events of the day. This is a celebration of coming together. Hope you enjoy it.

 Maybe, it will spark some thoughts about your gatherings with family and friends. The where, the when and the why...

 Gathering

 The family sit, 
surrounding
The large wooden table of rustic oak

 Throughout the day
They wandered through
different landscape
Thoughts dancing differently
Their eyes set upon separate scenes

 But now
they meet at the intersection of family and dinner time
The deeds of the day entwine right here

 Their voices float across the table
Conversation wraps around them
Rising and falling
Back and forth
Up and down the table

 They dine together
Fine together
All around the table

 And when every plate and spoon 
knife and fork 
and napkin 
is cleared away
The goodbyes are shared
The hugs begin
And everyone goes into the evening
to their own separate spaces

 Yet fragments of the evening's
conversation
Live again
In the minds of each family diner
Together
Apart
Grateful for the gathering

 Alan j Wright





Labels:

Comments

  1. Rebecca Herzog19 May 2018 at 04:05

    Thanks for sharing this. i really enjoyed your poem. A few years back, I built our farmhouse table so that we could have a place to gather for meals. You did a great job of capturing that time

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright20 May 2018 at 13:39

      It is most gratifying when a reader senses a connection with the words a poet offers up. Thank you Rebecca for your kind response.

      Delete
  2. Kay20 May 2018 at 02:50

    I love the sights and sounds of the family gathered round to share their day over dinner. I am so thankful we are able to eat together most days.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Alan j Wright20 May 2018 at 13:41

    Thanks Kay. To gather together to share a meal is a special occasion worthy of preversation.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York.  I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co...
20 comments
Read more

Opposite Poems

O pp o s ite P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. N...
26 comments
Read more

Powerful Poetry, 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston

  This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by Janice Scully  @ Salt City Verse where Janice shares some original words and offers us a taste of Thomas Carlyle to ponder. I encourage you to join a host of poets from all around the globe and visit Janice's page... Almost two years to the day, I wrote a post featuring the poem 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston. The poem was included in Brian's first book of poetry, 'You Took The Last Bus Home.' A very powerful Reverso poem and technically brilliant.  A Reverso poem can be read from top to bottom or bottom to top. It will often express opposite opinions depending on which way you read it. Such poems really make us think. A Reverso poem is like a picture turned upside down, a frowning face upended to reveal a smiling one. The poem read in reverse, contradicts itself with an opposing message. In 'Refugee' Brian Bilston focuses on a societal issue that tends to polarize feelings and the opposing views are clearly in eviden...
14 comments
Read more