“Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love,
the things you are,
the things you never want to lose.”
Kevin Arnold
“We all have our time machines.
Some take us back, they're called memories.
Some take us forward, they're called dreams.”
Jeremy Irons
“A moment lasts all of a second,
but the memory lives on forever.”
Annonymous
Safeway Parking Lot“It's surprising how much of memory
is built around things unnoticed at the time”
Barbara Kingsolver
“I've never tried to block out the memories of the past,
even though some are painful.
I don't understand people who hide from their past.
Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are
now.”
Sophia Loren
“If you haven't cried, your eyes can't be beautiful.”
Sophia Loren
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I wonder what trash smells like
it's been a long, long time.
Since I was a kid
cleaning offices
with dad's employees. . .
Back then it smelled like
cigarettes
marinated in stale coffee.
It's smelled like paper and ink
and sometimes the bosses cigars.
Corpses of grounds
wrapped in shroud brown filters
fell with a sickening "clump"
raising cloudlets of cigarette ashes
that settled on everything
to be dusted,
and 'vac-ed' next:
The reason that trash
is taken
first.
Then you dust from
up
to down.
The cigarettes, I guess, are gone.
Can you still smell the desperation?
The sweat?
The swears?
What does today's trash smell like?
It smells like a paycheck
to the least of these
as it did to me.
It smelled like my father
living only in sense-memory.
I never knew how happy I really was
at 15
wheeling my bike back home
through the wakening
city's
morning.
I miss ya Dad.
cloudia
it's been a long, long time.
Since I was a kid
cleaning offices
with dad's employees. . .
Back then it smelled like
cigarettes
marinated in stale coffee.
It's smelled like paper and ink
and sometimes the bosses cigars.
Corpses of grounds
wrapped in shroud brown filters
fell with a sickening "clump"
raising cloudlets of cigarette ashes
that settled on everything
to be dusted,
and 'vac-ed' next:
The reason that trash
is taken
first.
Then you dust from
up
to down.
The cigarettes, I guess, are gone.
Can you still smell the desperation?
The sweat?
The swears?
What does today's trash smell like?
It smells like a paycheck
to the least of these
as it did to me.
It smelled like my father
living only in sense-memory.
I never knew how happy I really was
at 15
wheeling my bike back home
through the wakening
city's
morning.
I miss ya Dad.
cloudia
ya, i missed my dad too.
ReplyDeleteAaahhh. Heknows.
ReplyDeletewarm namaste /\ from mumbai
ReplyDeletealoha!!
Definitely know the smell of office trash. Your picture is perfect. I always wonder what important living goes on above that stuff. Sometimes what remains (in the bin) is what's important!
ReplyDeleteheavy memories...
ReplyDeletelove the irons quote...
aloha from VA!
Hola Dear Cloudia,
ReplyDeleteLovely quotes and images. I like the sentiments about the memories.
Hugs from Cali.
lovely tribute to your dad~
ReplyDeletegood post cloudia how r u.
ReplyDeletegreat blog. to read and wtach.
I'm lucky I still have my Dad but I can imagine how you feel m'dear. x
ReplyDeleteBeen a year already? With you sista'
ReplyDeleteAloha
I miss my father most in April, when planting time comes around
ReplyDeleteLoved Jeremy Irons' quote that we all have time machines!
ReplyDeleteAnd after many many years, I still miss my Dad! I know the feeling!
I miss my Dad all the time -wish he saw my kids.
ReplyDeleteHi - aloha from Washington (the real one, not the D.C. one). Thanks for your comment at Bonnie's place.
ReplyDeletememories are necessary to make you into a rounded person. without them you are only half alive.
ReplyDeleteA unique poem to a much loved Dad. My Dad used to smell of trains when he came home from work! Funny how smells are so evocative.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the pictures. I always enjoy them so much.
ReplyDeleteSo nice, how you write about your Dad with such tenderness. He hears you.
I missed my dad, too! So very much.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, I hate it when "Memory" brings me bad memories.
ALOHA always!
B xx
Gorgeous post, darling!
ReplyDeleteEspecially loving the Sophia Loren quotes!
xoxox,
CC
Things may pass, but they will never be over.
ReplyDeletedaily athens
Aw. I miss my dad, too. I feel ya sista.
ReplyDeleteG' Day From Australia, my mum passed away this month so i know how you feel. Memories will always be with you no matter how hard you try to block them out, believe me i've tried.
ReplyDeleteThank you
ReplyDeleteLove, love LOVE the Sophia Loren quote. So true, at least for me!
ReplyDeleteNice pics, Cloudia -- jeepers, only little kids really know the wonderful feats they've done when nobody was lookin'.
ReplyDeleteHow DO you DO that? You can make cleaning up the office an eloquent adventure. Yep, aromas can trip a memory faster than any photo book. Another's colonge tripped my son's memories of my Dad....turned out to be the same colonge! My son didn't know what brand it was, but it was "Grandpa!" Go sniff some Old Spice, or English Leather, around all of the office cleaning. Don't worry, you'll always have your Dad with you. Aloha, DrumMajor
I'm so sorry, Cloudia.
ReplyDeleteYep--Miss mine too! Hugs!
ReplyDeleteJ