Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Tabatha Yeatts Here. Thank you for hosting. I know that Tabatha has been busy along with about forty other poets, including myself. We’re part of Laura Shovan’s February Poetry Project on Facebook. It’s been fun writing to a prompt every day.
I have been in San Antonio visiting my sister who I haven’t seen in at least two years. It’s been wonderful to see her. One of the highlights were homemade the tortillas we bought in a local grocery story. But there is more to do here than eat.
Today we drove down to the Alamo.
I read on a plaque:
“The limestone walls of the Alamo church are roughly 4 feet thick on average. Inside these sturdy walls the Texans positioned three cannons atop a 12-foot high elevated platform of earth and wood. . . . It was here that some of the final fighting of the Battle of the Alamo took place. According to an eyewitness, the last of the defenders continued to resist the Mexican Army from the “pitch dark” end of the Church.”
I have a lot of studying to do to get up to speed on the history. It’s complicated. But I gathered some background: that during the early 1800’s the settlers/immigrants who had come from all over the U.S and world to make a living in San Antonio, which at the time was part of Mexico, had serious disagreements with the Mexican government. This church was the settler’s staging ground in their fight against Mexican forces.
And where there is war, there are heroes and tributes to them. This is my sister on the lower left catching a picture of them.
There is so much I’d like to learn about Texas, and I hope to learn more. This part of the world is so different from where I live in Syracuse, NY, where it snowed this week. The temperature has been in the 80’s here this week.
To change gears, I leave you with two poems I wrote this week. I hope you like them. The first is about an old rundown house.
A NEGLECTED HOUSE Under the porch live a family of skunks. I see them out around dusk. Grey squirrels Have left their old home In the trees, for a chimney full of old eaves. The house is in shambles, the landscape’s gone wild but birds are at home in those brambles, It’s true it’s deserted in sad disrepair, but I wouldn’t say nobody lives there. ©Janice Scully 2023
The poem below is about the change of seasons, always my favorite time.
I’M MOST HAPPY in the Cusp between seasons— The cool Spring rain before the Summer heat, when Summer dons a cardigan for Fall. and Fall shivers into icy Winter. then winter dissolves into flowery spring. It’s these cusps I like the most, by far when the world feels most like a tuned guitar. © Janice Scully 2023
Have a great weekend. Thank you, Tabatha, for hosting Poetry Friday.
Janice, thanks for sharing about the Alamo. I don’t know the history much either, but you’ve piqued my interest. I like the rustic house, home to many critters. Your poem about the seasonal cusps is great too. I love how you described each cusp, especially the summer’s and fall’s personification.
“when Summer dons
a cardigan for Fall.” is a perfect description of those late summer days. And I love fall shivering as winter approaches.
I’m glad you’re having fun with your sister, Janice. The Pandemic certainly changed the timeline of family reunions. I hope to see my brother this summer, 1st time since 2019. I loved your poems when I read them in Laura’s birthday group and love them again, especially the one where you have shown that season transition, “When summer dons a cardigan for fall” and on.
A wonderful post! I’ve not yet visted the Alamo…someday, someday. For what it’s worth, it was 80 here in VA yesterday. Strange weather, for sure. I love your poem about the old house! There are so many old houses that hold stories…they are abandoned but perfectly good housing for animals and birds. Bravo!
Yay for reconnecting with your sister, Janice! Love your ‘Neglected House’ poem – it just goes to show that the value of a property can be high regardless of the curb appeal. 😉
Janice, it must have been nice to visit family. I went to the Alamo for a historic visit during one of the NCTE conventions. I was so surprised to see how small the place was. Thanks for sharing that photo. I did enjoy all the poems that you wrote. The lines that resonated with me are the last lines of the home in ruins and the first lines of the season’s poem and “when Summer dons
a cardigan for Fall.”
I hope you are enjoying your visit to Texas and your sister. Thanks for sharing some of your experience at the Alamo. It is somewhere I would love to visit one day. I enjoyed both your poems, especially about the abandoned house. I like the thought of wildlife moving in after humans move out.
Both poems are just delightful, but I especially love the one about the “abandoned” house. It is indeed not empty! Thanks for sharing today (and I’m envying you those tortillas, let me tell you).
They were delicious! Thanks for reading, Tanita!
Sounds like a super visit! I am impressed that you have been able to keep up with Laura’s Poetry Project even on vacation. I really love the reclaimed house. It’s that kind of noticing that makes poetry poetry.
Quite coincidentally, Janice, I found myslef watching the 1960 movie, The Alamo last weekend. Not too sure as to its historical accuracy though. Your poems stand out for me in different ways. In the first poem, A Neglected House, I like the way you challenge the notion of occupancy. In the second poem, I’m Most Happy.’ I enjoyed your excellent use of personification as exemplified in the words-‘when Summer dons a cardigan for Fall/ and Fall shivers into icy Winter/then winter dissolves into flowery spring.’ Great imagery.
“I wouldn’t say/nobody lives there” is a good ending for that poem, Janice; it’s a reminder to look closely, too.
Janice, these are so lovely! I love your imagery of what we humans consider “ruins” as a home for the wildlife that reclaims all space. And that cusp between seasons–yes! I especially like Summer donning a cardigan for Fall. And the Alamo! I went to TLA years ago in San Antonio, and I was astonished to discover it in the city itself–across the street from the wax museum and other tourist attractions. From images, I always imagined it to be out in the wilderness still.
I love the juxtaposition of the ramble-shamble house and the Alamo – and the thought that nobody lives in these places…until we look closely. Perhaps the house’s history is as complicated as the Alamo’s…