Thursday, May 18, 2023

Trouble is busy elsewhere

There were a lot of special moments during my trip to Boulder, but this morning, as I sit in bed and look at the trees, one stands out in my memory…

I was sitting in the sunshine chatting to Cece as she did tricks on the trampoline. After a while she stopped and lay down and said “Sue, will you come and lie with me on the trampoline?”

I took off my sandals and hauled myself up through the netting and we lay and looked at the sky and talked about nothing. The only one of many nothing topics that I can recall is which cloud in the mostly blue sky was dropping the few drops of rain?

Wendy, cooking the tea, saw us through the window and thinking we looked sweet, came to take our picture.




Dave said it rained for two weeks while I was away, and I believe him because the plants in the garden were two feet taller, and the fields looked lush and the fresh green leaves on the trees made me swoon.

Jet lag this time has been bad, but I’ve enjoyed just sitting looking at the trees. This was the view from the bedroom window when I got home last week. It’s even more splendiforous now.





from The Way It Is, New and Selected Poems, William Stafford

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sue - that poem is immense. Thank you for highlighting such a gem. Lying back and looking up at the sky was a regular part of being a child, wondering where it began and where it might stretch to. Cece will never forget those moments of timelessness with you.

Thea xx

marmee said...

Yes! Love the poem ! But isn't that photo begging to become a painting?

Anonymous said...

Thank you for these gifts of image and of word images Glad you are gradually emerging from the awfulness of jet lag. It is so much more pronounced at our age (and for the little ones as well)
Agree that there is a painting waiting there
Ana

Sue Hepworth said...

I’m glad you like the poem, friends, but if there is a painting there, it won’t be attempted by me. I tried a self portrait two years ago and it did not go well. Ahem.