. Below is a poem I wrote when I was about twenty:
It’s curious to feel but true
That face I saw you smile last night
Is now a thousand miles away
Smiling at some other people’s faces I will never see.
The distance and the time I know
Will make us strangers you and I.
But somehow in the passing years,
with memories of those things we shared,
I embalm your fragile memory
It really is curious because since I wrote these lines, I never saw the girl again. She was Italian and moved back to her own country after a period of study in this country. I never “went out” with her in any sense of the word or even spoke her language, or she mine, but through shared walks and making her the odd cup of tea we established a kind of connection. We used to wave our arms around to communicate with each other and the memory amuses me.
I remember her name but know nothing else about her. I don’t hanker after her or dwell on her unduly, but the poem keeps a sense of her alive. This, apart from anything else, reminds how words can preserve a moment or a mood long after the events which shaped them have passed from your memory.
I don’t write poetry now but at that time it was a favoured pastime of mine and my closest friend. He still writes excellent poetry which can be found on a site called http:// poemsatlarge.blogspot.co.uk if you fancy a look. I hope you all enjoy your weekends. Mine will be spent contemplating a fresh approach to dieting spurred on by an unfortunate conversation with a mirror which jumped out in front of me while I was dressing this morning,
countingducks 
This is really sweet. You should start writing again. You seem to have a way with words.
I wonder if she will ever get to read this.
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Thankyou very much. Perhaps she still doesn’t speak English so that might prove a problem but its a nice idea.
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I think I must have your mirror’s twin here. Have a good weekend.
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There is no doubt that some mirrors are a bit forward with their observations and I think there is a market for mirrors which have been well bought up and know when to keep their opinions to themselves
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Love the poem!
Just remember some mirrors distort the truth!!!
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I think my mirror may veer slightly towards the tactless but I fear there is something in what she’s saying
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Ah! Female mirrors can be so cruel!
x
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“This, apart from anything else, reminds how words can preserve a moment or a mood long after the events which shaped them have passed from your memory.”
I was going to comment with something along these lines, but then I read those lines and realized you summed it up perfectly. The fact you still have this poem and that lingering sense of her presence–or at least the effect that she had on you–is kind of awesome. Lovely post.
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Thankyou. Very nice of you to say it
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The lines that Abby quotes were the most striking to me too – sometimes these days I want to write things just to have a marker to take me back to particular events, or even as you say just the feelings of a time or a place, even when other details may fade. It is a lovely post indeed 🙂
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~~~Ducky,
I observe your “poetry” inside your prose, as well.
Happy Weekend, Dear. Xx
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Loved the poem Peter. You should try to get back to it. I wrote a lot of poetry over a two year period when things were a bit shaky in my life and it’s weird to read them now. Seems like a different life.
You definitely have a way with words!
b
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Aw. Writing from when you were younger is always sad. There are a million untravelled roads, people and places you’ve almost forgotten about, and then you wonder….what every happened to them? Thanks for the glimpse into your poetic past.
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In my opinion, your prose is poetry. Keep writing.
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It’s a beautiful poem …
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Thankyou very much. I don’t pretend its a masterpiece but it does hold the moment which is why I remember it
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Blasted mirrors and their opinions!
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I so agree with you Nelle. There is a subtle difference between truth and tactlessness which they seem to miss !, at least in their conversations with me
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Your prose is so often like poetry, Peter–it’s lyrical and evocative and says so much with just a simple turn of a phrase. This line, “a mirror jumped out in front of you…” says so much–I know what you mean. We all do. You’re a poet at heart because you know how to make words bow to your heart. And ours.
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As always, a very nice thing to say. I was toying with an update to some dialogue in Snow White and the seven Dwarves. When the wicked queen asks the mirror “Who is the fairest of them all”, the mirror should reply, “Can you step out of the way, How would I know. I can’t see a thing with you standing there”.
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Funny you would write that poetry writing was a fav pastime in your twenties… It was mine too, but I no longer write poems and I’m not even sure I know why. Enjoy your weekend and tell that mirror to get lost! 😆
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A sweet love poem.
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Aaaw, how very sweet…. I think this is part of why I love writing. It fixes memories, slices of life in a way photos cannot.
x
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I’ve embalmed my share of fragile memories and written a few poems about boys whose names I can just remember. Your poem is decent though….mine were completely melodramatic!
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A nice poem that settled into a spot of your memory repositioning the events of the day long past. I wrote poems when my only daughter died, it was a sudden burst of activity that I spent two years in that ranged from the horror then to angst, the sublime and lastly the why why why of all that was lost that filled a gap. Writing has passed, yet as I read the collection from time to time bound in a loose journal, they bring me back to the exact point I was as each was penned.
Your Italian girl is the same, here for but a short spell, but only in memory retrieved from the page.
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You know how I already feel.. your writing is absolutely superb. So I completely enjoyed reading this poem my friend 🙂
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Such a nice thing to say. Thankyou
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ive missed you terribly. Sorry to hear about the mean mirror.
😦
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She must have been very lovely to write such a beautiful poem.
I think we have the same mirror! I may have let out a yelp this morning when I looked at it 😉
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Lovely poem! Loved it! Let’s hope the girl you wrote it for might read it someday! 😉
You should write more poems!
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