Friday 8 April 2011

tanka and micropoetry (memories) by gennepher

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neapolitan
ice cream
wafer
a memory
of yellow cornfields

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home-made
Victoria
butter-cream raspberry sponge
a memory
of grandma's high teas

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a ninety-niner ice cream
I bought  in the park
for tuppence
a memory
of how I used my bus fare home from school

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orange juice
and
biscuits
a memory
of an elderly couple with a dog

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my place on the bench
opposite a girl
with a perpetually snotty nose
a memory
of school lunches

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a wicker basket
of home-made cakes
covered with tea towel
a memory
of a walk upstream

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home-made liquidised soup
splattered
on walls and ceiling
a memory
of a meal in a commune

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lashings of custard
on
my pudding
a memory
of kind dinner ladies

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mouldy white bread
and soup powder
in tap water
a memory
of a kind girl called Robin

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eating peas
straight
from the pod
a memory
of Granddad's vegetable garden

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fried eggs
nearly all
double yolks
a memory
of collecting eggs on the farm

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sloes
eaten
from the hedgerow
a memory
of a cold frosty morning

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my
mother's
stew
I remember
hating sliced carrots

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three tier
cake stand
full of cakes
I remember
Lyons Corner Houses

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on the moors
cold water
and tea bags
I remember
all the gas escaping from the calor gas cylinder

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beef paste sandwiches
generously laced
with sand
I remember
Brighton beach

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walking a long way
with the picnic basket
then the sun went in
I remember
my mother's bad temper

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a blood stained parcel
wrapped
in brown paper and string
I remember
grandma posting us a chicken at Xmas

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a crusty bun
pat of butter
and oxo crisps
I remember
lunch for a shilling

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a salad
all the ingredients arranged
picturesquely on the plate
I remember
the first meal John made me

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gas stove
exploded
when I couldn't light it
I remember
first cup of tea I tried to make for my parents

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white ice cream
with
hot chocolate custard
I remember
my favourite Sunday lunch pudding

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eating a roast chicken
pulling it apart
with my fingers
I remember
a fancy dress medieval banquet

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chocolate sponge
with
green mint custard
I remember
my favourite school pudding

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rice pudding
with
figs
I remember
my least favourite school pudding

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in the hedgerows
sun warmed
raspberries
I remember
a walk with a friend

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apples
red
and green
I remember
granddad's old gnarled apple orchard

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at the picnic
orange juice
poured into tumblers
I remember
the wasps joining in

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a box
of Cadburys Milk Tray
all for me
I remember
my reward for finding a lost purse

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a full
two pint
orangeade bottle
I remember
a urine sample a classmate took to a medical exam

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a huge enormous
dead black spider
in my lettuce
I remember
screaming one school lunchtime

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fish and chips
on
Bournemouth seashore
I remember
watching the sun go down

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one third pint
bottles
of milk
I remember
drinking through a paper straw at school morning break

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a few biscuits
from each tin
in a white paper bag
I remember
the grocer's shop with bare wooden floors

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sweets
for
a farthing each
I remember
my farthing with the jenny wren on it

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a silver sixpence
into
a bubble gum machine
I remember
the Beatles cards that came with it

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fish and chips
in
a transport café
I remember
a video machine with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Band

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blackberries
soaking in salt water
the maggots floating to the surface
I remember
my mother-in-laws blackberry pie

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chicken feathers
flying
in the breeze
I remember
grandma plucking the chicken for lunch

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4 comments:

  1. Very very nice remembrances. And delicious also :) related pictures well-depicted your recollections. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. lovely, Jenny. i made a Victoria Sandwich cake with raspberry jam a few months ago for @expatinCAT in exchange for a poem. yummy! *hugs* d

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  3. oh this is just awesome and lol laughing so much as gee you have my taste buds in memories going Im thinking of those gorgeous angel wing patty cakes i think i remember them being called oh so delicious .... & much more thankQ writing all this for us to share brings for me Im sure every reader their own memories that had been forgotten off .. yours written withsuch vibrant clearness only you are able to capture somehow the feeling of it being Yesterdays .. of some time ago ..yes You brought back for me in one verse about the beatles that brought me memories of sister who had posters of them in her room :*) and also You even bring tears to beez eyes speaking of the first meal John made you .. oh dear Gen such a personal work here yet You make it so possible for people to read & share & reminisce with you truly lovely lovely writing and Idea you created here . Always Beez

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  4. Thank you Beez...I am glad this post helps your memories, and brings back your own memories. The post started because I bought a neopolitan ice cream for myself which I had not seen for years and the memories flowed from that ice cream and this post was born! Thanks gennepher x

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