neither then nor now nor ever

 

 

~

 

i ask my father

the significance of the chestnut

the ohio buckeye

he keeps on his desk

 

it respresents the past, he says

not a better time

not a simpler time

but my time, when climbing trees

 

and playing cowboys and indians

filled summer days

and when fall came we collected buckeyes

and hoped for "doubles"

 

~

 

the chestnut trees, most of them, are gone

i'll let someone else speak to this

 

~

 

write on the stream as it flows

 

—Catullus

 

~





Poetry by one trick pony The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 802 times
Written on 2015-10-21 at 12:45

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Jamsbo Rockda The PoetBay support member heart!
I love your stories of your father. And the title is great.
I suppose it is wrong to compare times. Nice.
2015-10-24


Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
I really like this. The title fits the poem like a glove. The poem describes the buckeye which symbolizes something else which no longer exists. The chestnut trees are gone, but that's really neither here nor there, and the quote from Catullus describes what you have done.

Nice, nice, nice.
2015-10-22



I like that you said, it was not a better time, nor a simpler time, but my time ...* So special that he kept the memory for all to remember those times. A beautiful poem.
Ashe
2015-10-21


josephus The PoetBay support member heart!
What a wonderful memory you have awakened in me. My autumn was filled with what we called chestnuts and your father and Fog call Buckeyes. As a boy chestnut trees were everywhere. We'd collect the nuts and play games with them and trade them and keep them in old whisky sacks that were also treasured items from our fathers. They held marbles in spring and summer and chestnuts in the fall. Thanks so much for the memories
2015-10-21


KYREUS of Sweden The PoetBay support member heart!
(...you ask me - why...)
2015-10-21


KYREUS of Sweden The PoetBay support member heart!
CATULLUS
on desires:
"I do hate,
and still I love.
You ask med - why?
Dont know, but its a fact.
My everyday torture."

/just reminded these words,
by co-incidence.../
2015-10-21


countryfog
Your father and I are of a similar mind it seems . . . I have carried a buckeye in my pocket since grade school. Walking to school I passed a tree, the only one in my little world, and the buckeyes (more often called horse chestnuts here) were something unique, I thought then and still do they are a good luck talisman, but now also a reminder of a happy childhood. I gave a buckeye to my two older grandsons - teenagers now - but I know they have no meaning for them . . . you have to come across them when you're young and come too to your own meaning and magic of them.
2015-10-21