REWORKED, REBLOGGED, COMPLETE
© 2018 Barbara Grace Lake
It had to be but yesterday
My memory’s so vibrant, clear
Of seventeen unfettered time
An age before a struggled life
Began when I was fully grown
But seventeen, ah seventeen
We’d spend a beach day frolicking
Enjoy warm sand and chase cold waves
Or badly skate for hours on end
At Palace Ice or Roller Dome
For special nights Palladium
At seventeen, dear seventeen
All underage so we’d sneak by
Unwatchful guards then dance and dance
To music live from Harry James
Count Basie or Duke Ellington
Keep time with drummer Sonny Greer
At our frenetic seventeen
On Saturdays the Long Beach Pike
Its scary roller coaster ride
Noon Sunday picnics Griffith Park
Illicit beer, cold chicken legs
Then plan a week of summer play
Assured of endless seventeen
Where did it go this magic year
How did it fall so far behind
How did a life come in between
Of military, marriage, kids
How did I get so old and pass
Sweet seventeen, my seventeen
October 6, 2018 at 7:42 pm
My favorite year…17…My! Does time sure pass us by.
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October 7, 2018 at 5:55 pm
My! Best poem..totally love it
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October 7, 2018 at 5:59 pm
Thank you very much. It’s one of my favorites.
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October 8, 2018 at 10:49 pm
lovely vivid prose, Barb — maybe the good thing about not having had a very good 17 is that I more appreciate where I am now?
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October 8, 2018 at 11:09 pm
I can’t say much for my childhood up until my teens. I was born second child in a failing marriage and never seemed able to come out from the onus of not feeling loved. My teens were different, thankfully … and 17 was a good year.
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October 12, 2018 at 6:29 am
sorry for your early difficulties but glad you found your way so early — judging by your wise poetry, you turned hardship into wisdom & compassion ❤
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October 13, 2018 at 4:56 pm
I sometimes wonder at the word “wisdom”, but I fully endorse compassion … for all creatures both 2 and 4 legged.
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October 13, 2018 at 5:12 pm
But as for hardship, Da-Al, a good friend of mine of long ago, David Vowell, who shared a similar early beginning, told me, as a writer, “you use it.” You never have to give names, or even exact instances, but you use your experiences in your work. He has now, in his elder years, given up a lucrative career writing for movies and television and concentrates on poetry. My career writing for newspapers and magazines was never that lucrative, but I find an immense pleasure and outlet in poetry. All the things I wanted to say, all the stories I wanted to tell, I can do this in poetry..
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October 13, 2018 at 5:15 pm
Seventeen… How different life is, mine from yours. Proposed at 19+, married at 21. I was not allowed to be brave or carefree. Your 17 sounds magical.💞
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