Echoes Poem by Susan Williams
Echoes
.
she parked her blue truck in the driveway
right where I parked my truck many years ago
she stepped out of the truck and headed for the porch
just like I had done many years ago
she took off her sunglasses, paused, and then put them back on
just what I had done so many years ago
she climbed the steps to the porch and did not turn her head
to look at me through the window
just as I had done many years ago
and I could see her get a grip on herself and plan how to say it
just as I had done many years ago
and I knew
just as my Mother had known
and it was then I realized
.....................it's all echoes
.....................we're living amid echoes
.....................amid the reverberations of all the remembrances
.....................amid the traces and the vestiges
.....................amid the remnants of times past
.....................amid our own ghosts and shadows
she came in the house smiling
just as I had done many years ago
and I knew even more surely
just as my Mother had known even more surely
what she was going to say
and my heart sank, my life sank, all the shine in life sank
just as my Mother's had
she tried to act as if nothing was wrong
just as I had done years and years ago
in the same room
in the same house
my Mother's and my Father's house
my house now that they are gone
but they are not gone
they live here in the echoes and the shadows
in the yesterdays that are the todays
but right now it was we who sat there facing each other
Mother and daughter
just as another Mother and daughter
had sat there
many years ago
and
now many years later
I knew what my Mother felt
so many years ago
it's all echoes
raining down on us
you know this don't you
.....................it's all echoes
.....................we're living amid echoes
.....................amid the auditory afterimages
.....................amid the reverberations of all the remembrances
.....................amid the traces and the vestiges,
.....................amid the remnants of times past
.....................amid our own ghosts and shadows
she opened her lips
and I watched the fearsome man in black cape and hood
enter the room silently
behind my daughter
and sit in the corner silently
holding his scythe across his black robes
and I wondered silently
if my Mother had seen
the same fearsome man in black cape and hood
enter the room silently
behind her daughter
and sit in the corner silently
holding his scythe across his black robes
because
it's all echoes
raining down on all of us
you know this don't you
.....................it's all echoes
.....................we're living amid echoes
.....................amid the auditory afterimages
.....................amid the sounding and the resounding
.....................amid the reverberations of all the remembrances
.....................amid the traces and the vestiges,
.....................amid the remnants of times past
.....................amid our own ghosts and shadows
waiting for the dread words to fall from her lips and break my heart
and behind her
I watched the glowing one
in white robes
enter the room silently
and sit beside her silently
hand on the hilt of his sword
ready to do battle
....................echoes
....................it's all echoes
....................in this house
....................in this heart
....................where there is no future yet
....................and the present
....................suspended over an abyss
....................is swallowed up in echoes
.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~©susan williams,2016
Susan, I am reading this poem for the first time though it is one of your old poems and I am awestruck with its expression. Each line strikes you with powerful emotions.One is imported to the realms of poet's feelings that hang between hope and despair.
Really it is a poignant piece of work. Very strong and powerfully penned from the wisdom mind. 10++ and goes into my fav list
Soran, I thank you for reading my work and understanding it with the mind and feeling it with the heart. It gives me hope that my poems reach out and really touch the readers. Thank you more than I can say.
it's all echoes raining down on us you know this don't you .....................it's all echoes .....................we're living amid echoes .....................amid the auditory afterimages .....................amid the reverberations of all the remembrances .....................amid the traces and the vestiges, .....................amid the remnants of times past .....................amid our own ghosts and shadows
You have an unerring sense about this kind of writing, Soran. You've targeted the very heart of this poem here.
In addition to all of these, we can reveal the hidden side of this poetry that the poet did not say obvious; It is a philosophical question: What is this life mean?
Yes. What does this life mean when the same event happens 30+ years apart at the same house? It is eerie, uncomfortable, staggering, in its possibilities.
she climbed the steps to the porch and did not turn her head to look at me through the window just as I had done many years ago ** in the yesterdays that are the todays
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/3/2024 2:19:07 PM # 1.0.0.1119
Susan, again, i am left in awe; Again, i could feel ALL of your pain....and tears of sorrow for you, are still flowing. Have had so many deaths in my family and suffered with early passing of my parents...death is not a subject i can readily deal with. You are one brave woman...every once in a while i rehash the past...only to be brought back to the present...with all of it's challenges; Your present is felt clearly here as well....if, there are ghosts in my life- they are of me, and earlier years...shadows, as well; I believe that the glowing one in white robes will win the battles you and yours are facing this day....The Glowing One has got this one. Thank you, dear Susan, for sharing a huge piece of your life of this day and past days with us.. May God Bless you and keep you, your husband and both daughters, safe, happy and above all else, well. The only true wealth is one's health. This is a 10! ! ! !
Thank you, dearest Theo, for your understanding. So many people have similar trials and suffer but with God and good friends we get through it, don't we? A little tattered, a little bruised, but less troubled by trivialities, a lot stronger in our faith. I am not sure if I should have posted this but I did get a lot out of ny system- -poor readers... I have to close down- it is getting hot in this room and I must go join the AC in the bedroom. It was good to hear from you, Theo, you are dreadfully and sorely missed.