The Baggins Birthday, the Day After ~ a new poem by jan-u-wine, with drawings by Alan Lee.

[mechtild]

~*~





Happy Late Birthday, Bilbo and Frodo....


I have said this is a new poem, but technically it is not. Jan-u-wine wrote "Birthday" late last fall, too late to post in the 2013 Baggins Birthday entry. I considered posting it during the intervening months, but the poem really is best suited to the day after September 22.

"Birthday" is about Bilbo, but it is just as much about Frodo, from whose point of view it is written. From that vantage point, we can enter into Frodo's thoughts and feelings, marveling as much at the beauty of his soul as that of the beloved hobbit he both mourns and celebrates.

A blessed birthday to you, Bilbo and Frodo, and may we meet beyond the Circles of the World.



~*~

Birthday


How might I forget?

How might I forget:
the very trees remind me,
burnt orange-red,

swift-falling leaves

fiercely recalling
the waist-coat he especially wore
in autumn,

the smudge-black of shadow'd bark
recollecting his quick,
clever eyes.

How might I forget
when I hear his voice,

calling within
the fading of the day,

rose clouds surrendering
to moon-graced night,

a little wind
whispering

among the waves
of an unseen shore.


Even the green of the grasses,
deep along the curve of a sundered road,
remind me of him,

even the silent glint of a solitary star
or the kindly song of a stream,

laughing along its course.

How might I forget?

And yet, I have.
I
did.

__________________________________

The road is deep in warm-autumn dust,

trees fragile with faded leaves,
falling with gentle sorrow where now he rests.

I stay for a while beside him,
though he has gone.

I stay for a while,
my mind strayed to other times,

other places.

His old walking stick lies,

crooked,
upon the ground
at my side,

the carved bowl of his favorite pipe,
skin-warmed,

within my hand.



Forgive me, Uncle.

I did not remember the day.

Rather,
I sought out,
in my grief,

all of them,
all of them

we shared.

Each moment of them,
an Adventure,

each hour a schooling
of heart and mind,

each day a
birth day.

Thank you, Uncle.

Never shall I forget
our

birth days.

~*~

* Drawings by Alan Lee, from headings of chapters 1 and 2 of The Hobbit (Houghton Mifflin, 1997).

Most recent Frodo entry:

~ "Hope" by jan-u-wine, art by John Cockshaw.

Other Links:

~ All entries featuring jan-u-wine's poems.

Comments

[jan-u-wine.livejournal.com]

thank you so much, SB!