“Grandma” – Original Family Poetry

Family Poems Cover Image, original family poems by adan & sheila lerma
Click for Listing

This poem is featured in the “Family Poems” ebook by Adan & Sheila Lerma, a collection of over one hundred original poems.

Family Poems, available on Scribd.

My Author Pages for major outlets for eBook or Audio.

***

“a beginner’s view : the intent of this blog is to incrementally build a body of thought that works toward integrating various topics, yoga, fitness, and the arts – it’s a process…”


Site Areas

Fitness ** Arts ** eBooks

**

if the words endure, they do so because they link the links –

***

Grandma

Grandmas go way back.

So far I can hardly see

my own shadow.

I’d like to think she lived

in a real deep cool green forest,

probably was friends with

all the animals I’d seen

in the movies as I’d grown up.

Maybe she lived on a high mountain

where the snows always melted

right on time with the first flowers.

She just had a kinda magic,

a sweet magic about her.

And it seems her eyes were always

twinkling, amused by me, saying, yes,

yes I could do that little project

that little idea.  That yes, I can

do it, and it would come out

alright…and that,

that’s my grandma.

© 1994-2011 adam light creations/adan lerma

***

[ note added 080412 ]

submitted to : dVersePoets Poetics Prompt ~ ‘His’tory, ‘Her’story & time machines, august 04, 2012; hosted by brian miller

additional note to original posting below, brija at stable roots is still blogging and doing art and yoga today 😉

***

looking around what brija, who writes via her blog stable roots, calls my “compact diary” (my collection of poems dating from the early 80’s; with most done in the 90’s) , i found a few i considered partners for tomorrow’s post –

“your riches within” and “the middle older years, (the reunion)”

but “grandma” is the better poem, both as a poem, and as a companion to the idea of aging gracefully

“grandma” is a composite of my two grandmothers, both of whom i spent some summers with

re-reading my poem, i had flashes of memories of wry playful smiles and light touches and quiet moments, of cooking smells, small tidy rooms, and long soft direct gazes straight into my soul, from both my grandmas

i do remember, as always, with surprised pleasure, distinctly, their separate selves, their individual looks, their touches of kindness –

yet i see them both as one spirit of serenity –

but within that serenity, i also see strength and endurance plus their soft confident kindness holding all that in them, in both of them

yet my biggest surprise, was realizing that, yes, they are my grandmas, and are still influencing me to this day, but that now, i too am a grandparent (have been for many a year) –

and i see myself, not at my remembered level of how they were, but as wanting to be like them…

it’s my turn, and they’ve given me this lifetime gift, my grandmas –

to be a grandpa 😉

namaste´- con dios – god be with you

poetry series

Family Poems, available on Scribd.

My Author Pages for major outlets for eBook or Audio.


***

INTEGRATING YOGA FITNESS AND THE ARTS

About Me

Home

20 responses to ““Grandma” – Original Family Poetry”

  1. i used to sit in the lap of grandad mc and he would read the cat in the hat and i would touch the softness of his earlobes.
    my nana mc took me with a basket to collect bulbs in a field
    nana reid baked pies, jams, active, musical
    grandad reid fished chemist ham wry humor
    we are lucky to know these people aren’t we

    Like

    1. very lucky indeed, thank you lucy, sounds like you have had wonderful grandparents as well 😉

      Like

  2. Grandmas are always magical – I love the freshness of this poem and its simplicity

    Like

    1. marousia, thank you! and that you felt freshness in the verse after almost twenty years, is very gratifying, thank you again 😉

      Like

  3. Such a beautiful portrait of your grandmothers. You’re very lucky. I didn’t get to know either of my grandmothers (they both lived far away). I could feel the magic. Thanks for sharing.

    Like

    1. thank you so much serena, i’m very sorry you didn’t get to know your grandmas, that is such a different connection; and now i’m getting to feel it from the other direction w/4 granddaughters 😉 best wishes serena 😉

      Like

  4. smiles…grammas def have a bit of magic about them…i remember going to my grammas house most every sunday, when i was not at my cousins …of course he would be there too…her house was a museum…so much to see and the cliffs around her holler were legend….smiles….really nice piece man…

    Like

    1. i can imagine and see it must have been a magical time for you too brian, so important for us 😉

      so want to know, is a holler like a neighborhood? that’s such a neat expression

      not meaning to be funny here, but is it named a holler ’cause it was like the distance one could hear another?

      thanks brian, ‘preciate it 😉

      Like

  5. This sums up for me the way a small child can believe that their Grandma is something quite magical – like a Fairy Godmother, only better, because they are our own family. 🙂

    Like

    1. i like that, combining the magical fairy godmother with our own real family, feels very true, thank you holly! 😉

      Like

  6. Grandmas can be the best. Sounds like yours was. Well-described. k.

    Like

    1. yeah, i had two i knew for a lot of my growing up, i was very lucky!

      thanks k. 😉

      Like

  7. oh she sounds lovely…i like people with eyes that always twinkle… would’ve loved to talk to her a bit…kinda good magic with the forest and everything…i like much felipe

    Like

    1. wish i could talk to her now myself, though i guess, in some ways, i do 😉

      thanks so much claudia 😉

      Like

  8. Oh I love the child like imagination captured here of Grandma as a mystical figure with magic and positivity at her fingertips. Very lovely.

    Like

    1. thank you so much vanessa, very much my earliest remembered impressions of both my grandmas “way” back 😉 glad you liked it 😉

      Like

  9. Great post today. I really enjoyed it very much. Thanks for posting

    Question – Is the Glass Half Full

    Like

    1. kevin, thank you so much for liking my poem “grandma” – it’s one of my favorites

      you’ve an interesting link, regarding whether the glass is 1/2 full or empty, best wishes for you 😉

      Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.