Back Roads of Memory - The Softening Season

 Enjoy Dr. Anne Blythe's new book of poetry.  80 beautiful poems. Back Roads of Memory    $20 plus $5 shipping and 6% SC sales tax if applicable.  See below for an excerpt of poems.  101 pages.

The inspiration for Back Roads of Memory began in WordSplash, my writing studio in the woods which is situated on a hill between two streams (Moonshine Branch and Sunset Creek) running down to the Middle Saluda River. WordSplash is my sanctuary, my den of silence and inspiration...except when (noisy) almost-forgotten fragments of memory begin to stir and warm….and end up dancing, singing, and beguiling me back down into memory and reflection. 

These Back Roads poems surprised me. Discovering them, recalling their own individual moments in Time, and re-working them to be fit for other eyes to read, was a study in poignance and nostalgia…a study, in fact, of all the emotions of life. They made me laugh, and they made me cry; they made me shake my head in wonder. But here now, captured forever between the covers of this book, they bring me joy. For how could I not yearn to remember such moments as dreams (and memories) are made of…….

PREFACE
Backroad Memories
Before I burn these memories
let me gather them together
into this old trunk,
keep them beside me
to warm me,
keep me company
on long sleepless nights.
To haunt me,
Sing to me
Bless me, Charm me...
Condemn me.

As they wander through my memory
I’ll stop them, one by one,
and ask WHY
and request their story.

Each page tells a story,
revealing secrets of the past---
and how (perhaps to understand)
they came to be in the first place:
This, our dusty, shared Fate.
​
That’s why they’re with me now
burning in my brain
these sleepless nights:

To explain themselves to me.
And me, perhaps, to them.

My Old Ones
My Old Ones
walk alongside me now
closer than they used to.
It’s the progression of age, I guess.

When I was young,
they were way far away,
way ahead of me,
almost lost in a distant haze and fog.

But with each passing day,
almost with each passing hour,
as I move closer to them in my journey,
they surprise me, startle me sometimes,
tap me on the shoulder to remind me
of things I should not forget.

Such as gentleness, love, and compassion.
Heartbreak, hope, and despair....
Or--- (of course, being Southern),
that Tomorrow IS another day----

So (they say) be good, do right, and make amends
before it’s too late
and we’re off to remind someone else.....
who’s still traveling up
this echoing journey
in Time.

​Adam and Eve
So---since Life is a journey
and the earthly world
is imperfect---
We shall always be moving,
climbing, dipping
into hills and valleys
of bliss and despair.

Our Nature on earth
is restless.
Restless walking the world....

I’m a sinner
but not a flagrant or dangerous one.
Just unwilling to take other’s
experiences for my own.

I wanted to taste life once
in the living....
Twice in the writing---

That does beg the question
of emotional debris.
But look what
Adam and Eve
left in their wake.

Alone in the Wild Rain
Alone in the wild rain.
The deep grey green of the woods washed wet and heavy.
Tin roof sounding bass notes to the wind’s soprano. Sweet myrrh incense softening every room.

I tiptoe around the house
alone and feeling beautiful. 

Gypsy Queen of the Dark Corner---
long tie-dyed skirt,
long black tee,
barefooted, pony-tailed,
one simple necklace
reminiscent of moonglow. 

I am all ages,
eternal
in this single moment in time.

All is harmony
and the day looms long
and wet
and sweet
before me.