This is an Instagram post I wrote in December 2022, to remember my Grandmother... As soon as I saw today's prompt I knew this is what I wanted to share.
Time
Today
would have been your 87th birthday. Yesterday
marked one year since we lost you.
This week last year,
I bought you a birthday card,
which was sealed and stamped the day you went into the hospital.
A week later I laid it on your casket.
Hours before
you went to the hospital,
we were making plans to see eachother
in just a few days.
Today,
I found a card in a store that says,
"You are loved,"
and it felt like a card from you.
Yesterday,
I curled up under the quilt
you made for our wedding
and I finished the row
where you left off in your needle point.
I'll finish the rest
someday,
but I'm not ready yet.
Today
I put on your necklace, and your earrings hoping to bring you closer,
My wife and I go hiking a lot, and we get very sentimental about benches that are in memoriam of someone, often with a loving or beautiful inscription. So here is my poem for the day:
Kailtin, your poem moved me and led me to cry. This was a hard one today. I tried several times to write a poem of another sort, but this one always bubbled up from beneath the rest.
Remembrance
I hoped to write a soul poem,
a symphonic lament and prayer,
to all that have moved through my life,
a softy silent whisper
“I remember you.”
Though all I can bring to the surface now
is all those told to move south, to flee from homes
that will be bombed and reduced to rubble.
To countless natives and lovers of earth,
moved from their homelands through
bribes, lies, theft and eyes wide shut.
How will they remember their lives,
before the occupation,
and wars, and displacements
and genocides.
How will those grieving their beloveds
taken by terror in acts of violence
done under the cloak of darkness and righteous cause;
Kaitlin: What a 'deep-dive' (current jargon) that you share your intimate journey with us. Thank you for the courage and listening to the core voice within.
REMEMBRANCE: TOP TEN LIST
1 ANCESTORS: those who have gone before me that I know; those that blazed an
inheritance from which I benefit…but know little
2 SENSES: the five we know commonly, the sixth being ‘knowing’ and trusting it
3 BODIES: the privilege to be a spiritual being in a human body
4 SEASONS: each one a joy with messages to digest and savor
5 FRIENDS: the best companions one can experience
6 NATURE: includes all of creation, universe and things I cannot see nor imagine
7 SAFETY: first ingredient of trust
8 COMPASSION: receiving it and the gift of giving it to others
9 LOVE: The Divine’s for me; my love for the Divine; love of spouse, a child,
family and friends
10 BREATH: the first and last earthly gift I have and will receive
This is an Instagram post I wrote in December 2022, to remember my Grandmother... As soon as I saw today's prompt I knew this is what I wanted to share.
Time
Today
would have been your 87th birthday. Yesterday
marked one year since we lost you.
This week last year,
I bought you a birthday card,
which was sealed and stamped the day you went into the hospital.
A week later I laid it on your casket.
Hours before
you went to the hospital,
we were making plans to see eachother
in just a few days.
Today,
I found a card in a store that says,
"You are loved,"
and it felt like a card from you.
Yesterday,
I curled up under the quilt
you made for our wedding
and I finished the row
where you left off in your needle point.
I'll finish the rest
someday,
but I'm not ready yet.
Today
I put on your necklace, and your earrings hoping to bring you closer,
but nothing
is as close as when you were here.
I don't know what to do with
your death day being yesterday,
but your birthday being today.
In some moments,
I'm okay,
and in others I'm still so lost.
As the minutes slide away
on your birthday,
I miss you more and more.
And that's today.
Missing you as much as ever,
soon
it will be
tomorrow
again,
and someday,
we'll be together again.
My wife and I go hiking a lot, and we get very sentimental about benches that are in memoriam of someone, often with a loving or beautiful inscription. So here is my poem for the day:
Inscriptions for Our Future Memorial Bench
for my wife
They loved this hillside.
Pause a while here.
Returned to the earth.
Gone home to the lakes and grass.
They loved this trail.
Thank you for everything.
They loved this view.
Go and be part of the world.
Beloved friends, aunts, siblings, artists.
Now is the moment.
See us in the rain and the stars.
This was all so much fun.
You can use anything,
so i've been told.
bread & wine.
cracker & water,
donut & coffee.
we use a sausage biskit
(grape jelly on the side)
and a grape nehi on nannie day,
when i zoom my siblings,
to help us ponder our mom,
Ruth.
every september since.
"Do this to remember me"
(Luke 22:19-3/4)
(first nations new testament)
Wisps of memory
come to me
in familiar feelings;
visit me
in the rustling of leaves,
greet me
in streams of sunlight,
waft toward me
in scents on a breeze,
float down to me
in heavy snow flakes,
meet me
in well worn pages,
find me
in the squish of sand
between my toes,
the splashing
of a puddle,
the taste of warm
chocolate chip cookies,
of banana bread,
of pancakes
and coffee.
Remembrance: Inspired by an impromptu visit to the Veterans Memorial Park in Florence, SC
https://www.cityofflorence.com/parks-recreation/parks-facilities/veterans-park
Name after name after war after war
Some smiling under their sailor caps
Some stern, some scared, some stoic
All heroic
We come here to honor and pay homage
We come here, reluctant military parents
En route to see our son.
Each one of these servants were
Someone's son, daughter, sister, brother
Memorialized in marble, granite, bronze
For the monuments multiply:
World War One, Two, Korea, Viet Nam
September 11 -----------
For what have they fallen?
For freedom? Following orders?
For the fallacy of dominoes?
Did they die for democracy?
Why is there no statue for the War Between the States?
Why are our monuments to war and death and sacrifice?
I inhale the South Carolina morning air.
I exhale. I pause.
I did not come here to question.
I did not come here to approve.
I come here here to remember.
Kailtin, your poem moved me and led me to cry. This was a hard one today. I tried several times to write a poem of another sort, but this one always bubbled up from beneath the rest.
Remembrance
I hoped to write a soul poem,
a symphonic lament and prayer,
to all that have moved through my life,
a softy silent whisper
“I remember you.”
Though all I can bring to the surface now
is all those told to move south, to flee from homes
that will be bombed and reduced to rubble.
To countless natives and lovers of earth,
moved from their homelands through
bribes, lies, theft and eyes wide shut.
How will they remember their lives,
before the occupation,
and wars, and displacements
and genocides.
How will those grieving their beloveds
taken by terror in acts of violence
done under the cloak of darkness and righteous cause;
How will they remember?
Tonight, the cries of ancestors lost to
unremembered history are what I hear.
Children and elders plowed under
in nameless solidarity,
one more reminder that only some lives matter
in this blood stained world.
My own losses are encased in a song.
Seasons shifting and species disappearing
monuments of shallow hope built on sand and fill.
I am trying to remember.
Remembrances of my broken heart
tied to yours across a universe,
across waters and years and histories,
to the quiet place where all was peaceful,
Before this river of tears flowed from my heart.
This part is so, so good Kaitlin:
I will always remember what got me here,
every field of gold, every song, every tear,
and one day I’ll lay down and cover my heart,
hoping that in the days after, someone else
will choose a new, sacred path and remember me.
There are so many things to remember
From ancestry to tasks
But I only think of my Mother
Constant questions to ask
She brought the joy
She manifested happiness
The traditions were hers
She developed for us
Her love and kindness
Her never ending giving
She never asked for return
Now I am regretting
I remember so hard
So deep and so wide
Now just the hole I feel
Deep inside
Especially during this time
When all that was is gone
Her presence would be great
But of course there is none
But is that true?
No - she is always here
My memory so strong
She is sitting so near
Always with me
Always around
She is my Mom
My friend and my ground
I feel her I am her
I can talk to her whenever
What a wonder feeling
To remember forever
This one is for my Daddy. He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and we had our last Christmas with him in 2019. He was gone 8 weeks later.
In Remembrance
In remembrance of him,
We still gather.
In remembrance of him,
Stories are told.
In remembrance of him,
Laughter echoes.
In remembrance of him,
Tears still flow.
In remembrance of him,
Gifts are given.
In remembrance of him,
Food is blessed.
In remembrance of him,
Life continues.
In remembrance of him,
Love still exists.
-Karri Temple Brackett
12/28/23
So beautiful.
Kaitlin: What a 'deep-dive' (current jargon) that you share your intimate journey with us. Thank you for the courage and listening to the core voice within.
REMEMBRANCE: TOP TEN LIST
1 ANCESTORS: those who have gone before me that I know; those that blazed an
inheritance from which I benefit…but know little
2 SENSES: the five we know commonly, the sixth being ‘knowing’ and trusting it
3 BODIES: the privilege to be a spiritual being in a human body
4 SEASONS: each one a joy with messages to digest and savor
5 FRIENDS: the best companions one can experience
6 NATURE: includes all of creation, universe and things I cannot see nor imagine
7 SAFETY: first ingredient of trust
8 COMPASSION: receiving it and the gift of giving it to others
9 LOVE: The Divine’s for me; my love for the Divine; love of spouse, a child,
family and friends
10 BREATH: the first and last earthly gift I have and will receive