Greetings, readers. Happy Thanksgiving Day, 2023! I imagine many of you might be busy with family and friends right now, so thanks for taking a minute to read this. I just wanted to pop in and tell you I am deeply thankful that you subscribe to my blog. I’m grateful to even HAVE a blog. On top of that, it’s humbling to have anyone sign up for it AND also read it. That’s just plain terrific. So, cheers to you, readers!
And I love hearing from you, too, so feel free to leave comments here anytime.
This post is also to honor my mother and what she did about one of my childhood poems.
I’m especially thankful for my mother
This day always prompts me to be especially mindful of my mother, Anne Lamy, who, when I was a teenager, died the day before Thanksgiving. If you’ve read Undertow, you know about that.
Although she didn’t live very long, she was the kind of dedicated, attentive mom who found ways for me to pursue my interests: reading, swimming, sewing, ballet dancing, drawing, painting, throwing snowballs, and writing little poems. Cooking, not so much :-), although I’m trying with that, I really am.
I got started with writing early
When in the second grade (photo 1959), I wrote a poem for a boy I had a terrible crush on. I’m pretty sure he never noticed me, but Mom noticed my poem and, unbeknownst to me, loved it enough to type it on a sheet of paper and file it away. As I grew up, I remembered a few lines (you’re the light in my lamp / and the paint on my wall / you’re the glue on my stamp / and the bounce in my ball), but I had no idea what happened to the whole poem until many years later my sister found Mom’s typed copy and mailed it to me.
So, thanks, Mom, for your love and for preserving my first stab at poetry. Now, I’ve preserved that poem myself for all the world to read in my second book: From the Porch to the Page: A Guidebook for the Writing Life. 2022. BUT WAIT … you don’t have to buy the book to get the whole poem (although I’d love it if you did).
Despite my not planning to read that poem at the PORCH book launch, just for fun I did anyway. It’s cheap entertainment. Hear it here, near the end: Author Salon: Charlene Edge – YouTube
Thanks for reading. I send you much peace and love on this thankfulness day!
Next post: Dec. 2. Another Caring for Mother Nature article by my friend, Peggy Lantz.
Your writer on the wing,
Charlene
Jennifer Hill
Sending love 💋💙
Charlene Edge
Thank you. And love to you, too!
Peggy+Lantz
I’m thankful for you, too. Your early poems were so much better than my early poems!
Charlene Edge
I’m grateful for your friendship, Peggy.
Robert Lunsford
Happy Thanksgiving, Charlene, and what a great tribute to your Mom, gone too soon. This is my first Thanksgiving without my Mom, who we lost a few months ago at 98, sharp as a tack until the very end. SO much to be thankful for. All the best to you and yours.
Charlene
Thanks for sharing, Robert. You have my sincere condolences over your mother’s passing away. It’s a tough loss.
Peace to you and your family.
Linda Goddard
Dear Charlene,
Thank you for “Popping In” to send Thanksgiving Wishes and for sharing one of your poems from your little girl life! How sweet! And how your poem reminds me of my little girl crushes on boys in my class–didn’t have a particular special boy that I recall but remember those innocent crushes.
I wish you continued success as a writer and poet, and I am so grateful for your blog. Your voice is so natural and genuinely authentically you 😉
Charlene
Hi, Linda. Sure appreciate your friendship and how we share our writing lives!
Steve Muratore
Hey Charlene,
I am thankful for YOU as a person. A human. One who took risks as a young adult and made plenty of mistakes along the way. That you have a blog tells me you have a lifetime of wisdom gained in the School of Hard Knocks. I’m thankful you share your insight, not to mention your travels and pictures taken during those travels.
Notably, I’m very thankful for my inner life having been touched by your memoir, Undertow. 🦉🌻❤️
Charlene
Aw, thanks for your kind words, Steve. And many thanks for you and your support of Undertow.
Cheers!