Thursday, February 7, 2013

Mining the Memory: dverse Poets Meeting the Bar submission: how i met rachel

how i met rachel

"Heads down," and Mrs. Tew
turned out the lights.

Full of the righteous ire of
the falsely accused six year old
I want to cry.

20 little girls sitting with their heads
on their desks.
The room is quiet.

I look at the desk next to me.
The new girl sits there.

She has very curly hair
in ponytails.

She is smiling at me and
she waves at me.

I don't want to be nice.
I don't want to make friends.
I want to be angry.
I want to be out of heads down.

I frown and turn my head the other way.

Not knowing
how soon we'd be friends
or just how much
I would love her.

heidi
written 2/7/13 for http://dversepoets.com/2013/02/07/mining-the-memory-dverse-poets-meeting-the-bar/

I realized as I wrote this that I never fully appreciate the people who will become the most important to me when I first meet them. I always seem to meet them grumpy. I have been wanting to write a poem about my friend Rachel and decided to use this prompt to give it a try. I am not sure what I think about it yet and welcome all (kind) constructive comments. Thanks for reading!

25 comments:

  1. smiles...i like that she didn't give up and the two of you became friends in the end... some of my own good friendships had also not-so-promising starts... friendship sometimes need time to develop..like a good wine..

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    1. Thanks Claudia. Rachel is awesome and I am also very glad that she did not give up on me.

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  2. smiles...dont you love how life puts us in these moments just to make that happen...to notice...and then later become great friends....pretty cool capture....

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  3. Out of the negative comes a positive. Thats conveyed so well at the end.

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    1. Thank you. I had some trouble finding the right words at the end, but I think it works. Thanks for commenting!

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  4. Sometimes it is hard to know what kind of relationship we will develop with someone when we first meet them. Sometimes those first impressions deceive. I am glad that this meeting turned out to be a positive one for you.

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  5. Aww. I can imagine the pout on your faces. Time outs are never fun!

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    1. 36 years later and I still remember how mad I was, although I have no clue what we were in trouble for. Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  6. This is a lovely share, the turning from a stranger or someone we want to hate, into a good friend ~ I do so remember those times I was reprimanded by the teacher ~ Good one ~

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  7. So much to like here--powerful, honest feelings, very well written.

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    1. Thank you Nico for stopping by and for the kind comments.

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  8. What a great account of a moment in time that is attached to a gift that would endure. I'm glad you became friends. It's so hard to be the new kid in a class. Been there, done that.

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    1. Thank you Victoria. A gift is a lovely way to describe my friendship with Rachel.

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  9. when we meet someone, we just can't se the future

    for the thousandth time

    Verification makes it really hard to comment, takes a few times sometimes. you'd probably get more comments if you turned it off.

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    1. Thanks for the visit and the comments. I think I was able to turn off the verification.

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  10. well remembered. a vivid beginning. it sounds like a cheeky great friendship.

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    1. Thank you! I love this comment, and I am very tempted to steal the phrase "a cheeky great friendship" and write something from it.

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  11. We moved several times when I was a child and I was a new girl more often than I liked.

    It is difficult for friendships to become established when friendships are already solid before you join a class.

    But then (luckily) there was always someone like prepared to give me a chance.

    Anna :o]

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    1. Hi Anna, thank you for stopping in and commenting. I love how this poem has been bringing up memories for folks.

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  12. Aww... cherished childhood friends... thanks for sharing.

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    1. My pleasure, thanks for reaing and commenting.

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  13. Oh, how well I remember those school days of being unjustly punished. So glad for you that out of it all came a good friend. What wouldn't we endure to have one good and trusted friend? Nice. Peace

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    1. I think that I may have actually have fallen asleep during that heads down, so there were many levels to my grumpy. Thank you for reading and commenting.

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  14. Your reaction to her is a common defense mechanism employed by children (adults too, sometimes). We tend to not want to show interest in others until we are certain who they "might" be. Wonderful poem!

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    1. Thank you! I'm so glad you came by and I appreciate the comments. I still tend to hold back when meeting new people, maybe I'll grow out of it in the next 30 odd years.

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Hi! Thank you for the visit! Grab a plate and a sweet tea and let's dig in. It may take a while, but I always try to reply and return visits.