Monday, March 12, 2007

I am from...

I am from quilt frames, from Singer sewing machines and fabric scraps.

I am from purple shutters that make the neighbors shake their heads and from thin walls that allow me to hear their conversation.

I am from the willow tree where the dove coos, from the gladiolus that soared above my little girl head.

I am from the storytellers and the stubborn, from Johns and Thomases and Helens.

I am from the graciously welcoming and the silently grudge bearing.

I am from 'put away your tears' and 'be strong.'

I am from the proud and angry atheist, from the seeking Unitarian, from the contemplative Quaker, and from the tear-streaked cheeks of an old man singing 'How Great Thou Art' as the pipe organ crescendos.

I am from Pennsylvania, from hard pretzels with your ice cream, potato salad with hot bacon dressing, and thick homemade egg noodles in chicken potpie.

From the woman who wet nursed her neighbor's dying child, and who gladly fed any hungry soul who came to her door,
From the man who could entice songbirds to eat from his hand,
From the young man who wanted a red-haired daughter to name for the grandmother who took him in when his mother died and his father abandoned him,
From the girl who shot out the neighbor's window using the BB gun to make sparks in the street, From the boy who made his mother scream when the garter snake in his shirt pocket crawled out during dinner.

I am from a hundred years of photos from both sides of a family, including the 6 old photo albums I knew to find in the top drawer of the dresser in the neat as a pin attic...the ones I was given all the stories for just weeks before a generation passed into the faded pages.



Where are you from?

I first saw this at Cosima's place and thought hers was so marvelously poignant I wanted to give it a go. If you want to share as well, instructions can be found here. Let me know if you do because I'd love to know where you are from.

23 comments:

G-Man said...

Limey, I am from a rich German heritage.
I'm from a Scottish immagrints travels..
We are from a loving household. We are very Blue Collar.. We always cooked for the unexpected guest, and we welcomed everyone. We liked to play cards, and we liked to go fishing.
We were poor and didn't know it....
We were rich and we knew it...
What a wonderful idea Trini, Thank you for asking...Love you..Galen

Anonymous said...

Terrific post lime. Wonderful writing. You rawk!
tc

James Goodman said...

This is a great post, Lime. Thanks for sharing. :D

Anonymous said...

I love this lime!!

By the way I posted a much happier post...

S said...

Wow Lime that is really cool!!!
I love it...I am so curious about the man who wanted the red haired little daughter because....

I never knew that about him....

I think this is a wonderful post but I cannot do it. It would go something like this:

I am from criticism, from discouragement, from ignorance, from the man that yelled at me everyday....so uh. I'll just read everyone elses!

Semi-Gloss Lacquer said...

Lime, Lime, Lime...

If you constructed this in your lil ol' heady head all by y'self I am completely blown away.
(If this is a formula that you plugged in various memories to??? I dunn wanna know, (and that link needs to be removed..)
--i'd advise you to claim the whole pattern of writing, (process and all,) as your own... which may be the first time I've ever endorsed stealing...
(it's that good.)

-but,,, if you wrote this all on your lonesome (with decongestants swirling around and enough used kleenex to build a mattress with (now there's a scuzzy thought,)

amazing...
simply amazing...

Semi-Gloss Lacquer said...

oh darn...
..it's not only a formula based upon a tremendous poem (quite good, actually,)
-but it's sort of a movement, also...
(greaaaaat.)
(now i'm hearing a combination of the 'look for the union label,' 'bridge over the river kwai,' and any one of Sarah McLaughlin or Alanis Marisette's songs going off in my head...)

...okay, we'll chalk this one off for the team of the fairer sex...(which means I have a lot of other 'where I'm from's' to read...

still like yours, though.
a lot...

(grumble grumble grumble...)

lime said...

g-man, oh thank you. how about we sit and laugh over a game of rummy while we munch on all the goodies cooked up by hard working folks.

tc, thank you very much

james, i'm glad you enjoyed it

steve, thanks. i enjoy all your posts no matter what you share.

bare, i've wanted to do a post on him for sometime...i still think you could do this and do it well...just choose the parts that make you happy.

lacquer, my friend, you know i can't take credit for being entirely original. i had a hard time deciding which bits to include and which to omit. does that count? lol. thanks for your high praise though. i'd LOVE to read your version.

Phain said...

this was wonderful...absolutely wonderful (so yeah, that means i stole it from you)

Anonymous said...

I loved that!!

When I feel the blogging spark again, I'll give it a try.

Logophile said...

LOVE this
And even if it is a formula, the end product was all you, and all wonderful.
Im so stealing this.

DaMasta said...

Right on! Very "unique".. kinda the same thing logo said... You have a way with words, even if it WAS a formula.. :)
I might attempt this as well!

xoxo

lime said...

phain, i'm looking forward to reading yours

snavy, here's me with my flint.....

logo, steal away! can't wwait

damasta, thank you. go for it, chica, i'd love to read it.

(M)ary said...

100 years of photos. Lucky you. Cherish and protect those for future generations who will be from you!

(They will say: "I am from a great blogger named Lime.")

airplanejayne said...

I luve this Lime!! Gonna try to do this soon....

and I love that you come from purple shutters -- my fave color.

Jocelyn said...

No kidding on the poignancy of it. Wow. I love the revealing details.

I'll go check out those links in a bit...maybe I can even use such an exercise with my students sometime.

I love your poem.

Gary said...

I come from a long line of fishers and farmers. Though I've never done either.

Cosima said...

So far all the I-am-from's I have read were uniquely beautiful. Yes, it has a structure, but there is still so much to decide. I have seen short poems vs. long stories and lots of details vs. more general writing. And who says, you can't diverge from the instructions...

So happy that you did it, and passed on the torch :).

CeeCi said...

Fantastic! Was this one tough or what? Like Cosima, I've seen this done in many variations, each one as unique as the individual who wrote it.

Jacob said...

This took my breath away. Or maybe it put it back. I can't tell. A little of both, maybe. I had my eyes closed as Logo read it to me over the phone last night. Quite the meditation, Limers. Love it. Thank you for it.

Moosekahl said...

I love potato salad with hot bacon dressing!

Moosekahl said...

I love potato salad with hot bacon dressing!

Lolly said...

That was fantastic!