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Letter to Grandpa

3/21/2016

8 Comments

 
:Dear Grandpa,
Do you remember when you caught a fish for me with your bare
         brown-as-a-berry hands?
Together, we drove around the Lehigh Valley searching for horses.                            .
You taught me how to feed a horse an apple, fingers held
        tightly together, palm turned upward.
Grandpa, I love you because you have shown me so many things:
        how to ice-skate, to swim, to dive.
We swam in Sailor’s Lake and Wallenpaupack and dove off
        boulders.
In the fall you raked mounds of leaves that rose like small
       elephants’ backs on the front lawn in Coopersburg.
Pixie and I jumped in every one and scattered brown leaves
        like parachutes in the wind.
You surprised me with my own rink on Christmas morning,
         hosing down the yard to make a sheet of silver-smooth ice.
Together we walked up the mountain and rescued a tiny fir tree,
         Little Pocono.
Grandpa, remember how we danced the polka with me
         standing on your stockinged feet?
We practiced driving in your Dodge that had no power steering.
You are special because you truly lived your life by the
        Golden Rule.
You taught me to try to live my life that way, too.
 
You were my teacher, my best friend, my hero.
You were the sun and the moon and the stars.
You were my universe.
I will always love you.
 
Your granddaughter,
 Lynnie


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8 Comments
Melanie Meehan link
3/21/2016 03:38:11 am

What a beautiful tribute to your grandfather. The specifics are powerful, and the frame of importance around them holds it together. It's a piece that reminds us all to create and pay attention to moments that matter. Thank you.

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Diane Dougherty link
3/21/2016 03:39:29 am

Lynne, you really capture your love for your grandfather in this poem. I love the "leaves like elephants' backs" and the fir tree "little pocono." You have told me about your grandfather before, but this poem truly brings him to life.

Reply
Rose
3/21/2016 03:49:14 am

A wonderful piece full of those specific words that really define place and time. I like the letter format also - it makes it more personal, like you are talking to your grandfather.

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Judy jester link
3/21/2016 04:47:58 am

Lynne, I wish my memory were as good as yours and that I could weave words as well as you do. How lovely.

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Clare link
3/21/2016 05:13:43 am

Lynne - I love this structure. Anna has been using it all month - I think it is so powerful for word choice, voice and mini-story. I loved that I connected with so many of the references since I knew some of the stories. It strikes me that he instilled so many dispositions within you through the way he lived his life. So powerful for all of us to remember it is not just what we do but how we do it that really matters.
Clare

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Tara link
3/21/2016 04:07:04 pm

This is such a moving letter, Lynne. You give the reader insight into your grandfather and the wonderful man he was.

Reply
Lynne
3/21/2016 04:13:50 pm

Such a beautiful letter to your grandfather! Sounds like such a wonderful man...so many wonderful memories!!!

Reply
elsie
3/21/2016 05:31:22 pm

Grandparents are the best and you had a gem. What an influence he has made in your life. I love how specific everything was.

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    Lynne loves to write in the early morning hours, especially in warm weather when she can sit outside on the patio.  After a walk with her three Welsh Corgis, her mind is cleared and her spirit is inspired by the choir of birds in nearby bushes and trrees. 

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