Poem: "Where Will All Come Home?"
Jan. 16th, 2018 03:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the November 2017 ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from thnidu. It also fills the "WILD CARD: forever" square in my 10-31-17 card for the Space and Time Bingo fest. This is the freebie for the January 2, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl reaching its $200 goal, chosen in an audience poll. It belongs to the Dr. Infanta thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
"Where Will All Come Home?"
The girls giggled as they scampered
through the California sunshine
in search of raw materials.
Alicia and Saraphina moved
in and out of shadows, sometimes
almost vanishing with their skin
of lighter and darker brown.
Judd grazed nearby,
observing their play
with a tolerant eye.
Heidi watched as Alicia
showed Saraphina how to make
boats out of leaves, out of bark,
out of anything she could
lay her little hands on.
Aidan had started out by
making a paddle catamaran
from twigs and wool string.
Now he was carving
bark into what looked like
a different paddleboat.
"Having fun yet?" he asked.
"Yes," Heidi said. "Your place
is lovely, and the girls are adorable."
They all sang as they worked,
rarely in the same language,
except for Saraphina who
only knew Haitian Creole
and a little bit of English.
Heidi suspected that
some of the languages
Aidan and Alicia used
were forgotten forever by
anyone other than them.
Saraphina found a giant leaf
from some kind of palm tree
and dragged it over to them.
Then she folded it, babbled
in Haitian, and mimed sewing.
"Sure, we can do that!"
Alicia grinned as she dug into
the tools that Aidan had set out, and
began following Saraphina's instructions.
Surprisingly, the project turned into
a sturdy little flat-bottomed boat held open
by the two palm stems lashed across it.
Curious, Judd nudged it with his nose.
Alicia pushed him away, pointing out
something tasty in the nearby tangle
of the dark green undergrowth.
By then, Aidan had finished his paddleboat
and moved on to weaving what looked
like a half-round basket from twigs.
"A coracle!" Alicia squealed, and
grabbed a banana leaf to start making
several small boats that resembled
nothing so much as green pie plates.
Aidan chuckled and picked up
another banana leaf, which
he deftly made into a cover
for his own bowl-boat.
Heidi, who only knew
how to fold paper boats,
realized that nobody else was
using any commercial products
and decided just to watch.
Alicia got tired of that, though.
"Come on, you should make
something too," she said.
Heidi tried to demur, but
Alicia insisted on showing her
how to make a bark raft and
even one of the iris-leaf boats
which was simpler than it seemed.
Judd snorted at the iris one and
blew it clean out of Heidi's lap,
making her laugh at his antics.
"Oh, you!" she said, pushing
his nose away like Alicia had.
Judd gave a horsey laugh.
For a villainous superhorse,
he could be quite playful at times.
Then they picked up armloads of
toy boats and walked down to
the creek that wound its way
through Aidan's property.
In most times and places,
it reached no more than
ankle depth, although it
had a few knee-deep pools
where the fish lingered.
The bottom was covered
prevailingly with pebbles,
but the inner curves had
beaches of golden sand.
Saraphina still managed
to find a bit of mud.
"Be careful," Heidi said.
Aidan just laughed, joining
Saraphina to make sure
it was safe to walk in.
The rest of them waded
into the water and started
setting their boats afloat.
Aidan stretched to put
his paddleboats in the creek,
where they performed the best.
Even Judd picked up
the big palm-leaf boat
and put it in the water.
It floated quite well.
He snorted at some
of the boats with sails,
making them move faster.
The girls ran after them,
splashing through water
no deeper than a puddle.
Alicia broke into song.
"Dark brown is the river.
Golden is the sand.
It flows along for ever,
With trees on either hand."
Aidan's strong voice added,
"Green leaves a-floating,
Castles of the foam,
Boats of mine a-boating --
Where will all come home?"
Heidi lost the next verse
amongst all the splashing,
but she caught the last as
Alicia stopped Saraphina
from going any farther.
"Away down the river,
A hundred miles or more,
Other little children
Shall bring my boats ashore!"
Saraphina grinned and
turned back the way they
had come, clearly pleased by
the idea of sharing the boats
with some unknown stranger.
Judd also lost interest in
the toys and waded over
to a slightly deeper spot
to wallow in the water.
Of course then he
had to shake, which
made Alicia shriek.
"Get away from me,
you overgrown kelpie!"
she said, splashing at him.
"What is a kelpie?"
Heidi asked Aidan.
"It's a Scottish faerie that
looks like a black horse, or
more often a pony," he said.
"They are said to lure riders
into the deep water and then
drown them or even eat them."
Heidi shuddered. "That's horrifying."
"It also discourages small children
from playing near deep water,"
Aidan said. "That's useful."
Heidi looked for Saraphina, but
the toddler showed no interest in
anything more than the edges.
She and Alicia chased each other
through sun and shadows, with mud
on their skin and leaves in their hair.
It was good to see them both
reaching and stretching for
things that made them happy.
Heidi wished that all children could
have opportunities to play like this.
Saraphina might have lost
her first home, but like the boats,
she had found a new one now.
Heidi herself still felt unsettled
about her new abilities, although
she was learning how to handle them.
Watching Aidan and Alicia and Judd,
Heidi could glimpse the marks left
by their pasts, events that she
hadn't even heard of but felt
sure held their own horrors.
In the dappled sunlight
and glittering water, even in
the thick brown mud, those things
remained firmly in the past.
Judd herded the girls back
toward Aidan and Heidi,
keeping to the shallows.
None of them were quite okay,
after everything that happened to them,
but all of them were healing.
* * *
Notes:
"Where Go the Boats?" by Robert Louis Stevenson appears in A Child’s Garden of Verses. Listen to it online.
Aidan's garden has a dense living fence around it, beyond which lie the pastures. The creek has a few pools where the fish linger.
Toy boats encourage craft skills. They also teach the crucial lesson of letting go. If you expect to lose or release some boats, it is preferable to use biodegradable materials. Learn how to make bark rafts, birchbark canoes, cork canoes, and cork rafts.
Leaf boats may be made in the Irish / Scottish style from iris or bamboo leaves. Palm leaves may be fashioned into canoes. A coracle is a bowl-shaped boat. These toy coracles are made from banana leaves. You can also make a replica of a skin coracle.
Among the most biodegradable and best floating options is making ice boats. One popular paper boat pattern has a peak in the middle. This origami sampan is hollow. Paper breaks down pretty well as long as it's not waxed -- which has its pros and cons for play.
Aidan also makes boats from wood, including a paddle catamaran and a paddleboat. The best material to power a toy paddleboat is a rubberband. However, those didn't exist when Aidan learned to make these things, and he doesn't want to put synthetics into the waterways. So he uses wool string, among the stretchier natural fibers.
Messy play is essential for healthy development. It has many benefits for the whole family. It also helps traumatized children cope with their experiences. Explore ideas for playing with mud, water, and other messy things.
Kelpies are a type of water fey that look like horses. Judd in a creek looks very much like a big kelpie!
Traumatic experiences can cause lasting psychological stress, which can develop into PTSD. Understand how to cope with traumatic stress or help someone else through it. Nature play helps by stimulating the senses, and sunshine helps to banish depression.
crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from thnidu. It also fills the "WILD CARD: forever" square in my 10-31-17 card for the Space and Time Bingo fest. This is the freebie for the January 2, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl reaching its $200 goal, chosen in an audience poll. It belongs to the Dr. Infanta thread of the Polychrome Heroics series."Where Will All Come Home?"
The girls giggled as they scampered
through the California sunshine
in search of raw materials.
Alicia and Saraphina moved
in and out of shadows, sometimes
almost vanishing with their skin
of lighter and darker brown.
Judd grazed nearby,
observing their play
with a tolerant eye.
Heidi watched as Alicia
showed Saraphina how to make
boats out of leaves, out of bark,
out of anything she could
lay her little hands on.
Aidan had started out by
making a paddle catamaran
from twigs and wool string.
Now he was carving
bark into what looked like
a different paddleboat.
"Having fun yet?" he asked.
"Yes," Heidi said. "Your place
is lovely, and the girls are adorable."
They all sang as they worked,
rarely in the same language,
except for Saraphina who
only knew Haitian Creole
and a little bit of English.
Heidi suspected that
some of the languages
Aidan and Alicia used
were forgotten forever by
anyone other than them.
Saraphina found a giant leaf
from some kind of palm tree
and dragged it over to them.
Then she folded it, babbled
in Haitian, and mimed sewing.
"Sure, we can do that!"
Alicia grinned as she dug into
the tools that Aidan had set out, and
began following Saraphina's instructions.
Surprisingly, the project turned into
a sturdy little flat-bottomed boat held open
by the two palm stems lashed across it.
Curious, Judd nudged it with his nose.
Alicia pushed him away, pointing out
something tasty in the nearby tangle
of the dark green undergrowth.
By then, Aidan had finished his paddleboat
and moved on to weaving what looked
like a half-round basket from twigs.
"A coracle!" Alicia squealed, and
grabbed a banana leaf to start making
several small boats that resembled
nothing so much as green pie plates.
Aidan chuckled and picked up
another banana leaf, which
he deftly made into a cover
for his own bowl-boat.
Heidi, who only knew
how to fold paper boats,
realized that nobody else was
using any commercial products
and decided just to watch.
Alicia got tired of that, though.
"Come on, you should make
something too," she said.
Heidi tried to demur, but
Alicia insisted on showing her
how to make a bark raft and
even one of the iris-leaf boats
which was simpler than it seemed.
Judd snorted at the iris one and
blew it clean out of Heidi's lap,
making her laugh at his antics.
"Oh, you!" she said, pushing
his nose away like Alicia had.
Judd gave a horsey laugh.
For a villainous superhorse,
he could be quite playful at times.
Then they picked up armloads of
toy boats and walked down to
the creek that wound its way
through Aidan's property.
In most times and places,
it reached no more than
ankle depth, although it
had a few knee-deep pools
where the fish lingered.
The bottom was covered
prevailingly with pebbles,
but the inner curves had
beaches of golden sand.
Saraphina still managed
to find a bit of mud.
"Be careful," Heidi said.
Aidan just laughed, joining
Saraphina to make sure
it was safe to walk in.
The rest of them waded
into the water and started
setting their boats afloat.
Aidan stretched to put
his paddleboats in the creek,
where they performed the best.
Even Judd picked up
the big palm-leaf boat
and put it in the water.
It floated quite well.
He snorted at some
of the boats with sails,
making them move faster.
The girls ran after them,
splashing through water
no deeper than a puddle.
Alicia broke into song.
"Dark brown is the river.
Golden is the sand.
It flows along for ever,
With trees on either hand."
Aidan's strong voice added,
"Green leaves a-floating,
Castles of the foam,
Boats of mine a-boating --
Where will all come home?"
Heidi lost the next verse
amongst all the splashing,
but she caught the last as
Alicia stopped Saraphina
from going any farther.
"Away down the river,
A hundred miles or more,
Other little children
Shall bring my boats ashore!"
Saraphina grinned and
turned back the way they
had come, clearly pleased by
the idea of sharing the boats
with some unknown stranger.
Judd also lost interest in
the toys and waded over
to a slightly deeper spot
to wallow in the water.
Of course then he
had to shake, which
made Alicia shriek.
"Get away from me,
you overgrown kelpie!"
she said, splashing at him.
"What is a kelpie?"
Heidi asked Aidan.
"It's a Scottish faerie that
looks like a black horse, or
more often a pony," he said.
"They are said to lure riders
into the deep water and then
drown them or even eat them."
Heidi shuddered. "That's horrifying."
"It also discourages small children
from playing near deep water,"
Aidan said. "That's useful."
Heidi looked for Saraphina, but
the toddler showed no interest in
anything more than the edges.
She and Alicia chased each other
through sun and shadows, with mud
on their skin and leaves in their hair.
It was good to see them both
reaching and stretching for
things that made them happy.
Heidi wished that all children could
have opportunities to play like this.
Saraphina might have lost
her first home, but like the boats,
she had found a new one now.
Heidi herself still felt unsettled
about her new abilities, although
she was learning how to handle them.
Watching Aidan and Alicia and Judd,
Heidi could glimpse the marks left
by their pasts, events that she
hadn't even heard of but felt
sure held their own horrors.
In the dappled sunlight
and glittering water, even in
the thick brown mud, those things
remained firmly in the past.
Judd herded the girls back
toward Aidan and Heidi,
keeping to the shallows.
None of them were quite okay,
after everything that happened to them,
but all of them were healing.
* * *
Notes:
"Where Go the Boats?" by Robert Louis Stevenson appears in A Child’s Garden of Verses. Listen to it online.
Aidan's garden has a dense living fence around it, beyond which lie the pastures. The creek has a few pools where the fish linger.
Toy boats encourage craft skills. They also teach the crucial lesson of letting go. If you expect to lose or release some boats, it is preferable to use biodegradable materials. Learn how to make bark rafts, birchbark canoes, cork canoes, and cork rafts.
Leaf boats may be made in the Irish / Scottish style from iris or bamboo leaves. Palm leaves may be fashioned into canoes. A coracle is a bowl-shaped boat. These toy coracles are made from banana leaves. You can also make a replica of a skin coracle.
Among the most biodegradable and best floating options is making ice boats. One popular paper boat pattern has a peak in the middle. This origami sampan is hollow. Paper breaks down pretty well as long as it's not waxed -- which has its pros and cons for play.
Aidan also makes boats from wood, including a paddle catamaran and a paddleboat. The best material to power a toy paddleboat is a rubberband. However, those didn't exist when Aidan learned to make these things, and he doesn't want to put synthetics into the waterways. So he uses wool string, among the stretchier natural fibers.
Messy play is essential for healthy development. It has many benefits for the whole family. It also helps traumatized children cope with their experiences. Explore ideas for playing with mud, water, and other messy things.
Kelpies are a type of water fey that look like horses. Judd in a creek looks very much like a big kelpie!
Traumatic experiences can cause lasting psychological stress, which can develop into PTSD. Understand how to cope with traumatic stress or help someone else through it. Nature play helps by stimulating the senses, and sunshine helps to banish depression.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-16 10:45 pm (UTC)(Autocorrect?)
The living fence link doesn't work for me. What is it?
None of them were quite okay,
after everything that happened to them,
but all of them were healing.
Awwwwww. It me. <3
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-17 12:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-17 12:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-17 05:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-07-04 11:49 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2018-01-17 08:20 am (UTC)Fixed.
>> The living fence link doesn't work for me. What is it? <<
Just a dense planting around the edge of the yard; I fixed that link too.
>> Awwwwww. It me. <3 <<
I'm glad you liked this.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-17 12:18 am (UTC)• They all sang as they worked,
rarely in the same language,
except for Saraphina who
only knew Haitian Creole
and a little bit of English.
→ rarely twice in the same language
> Reading the first two lines of this stanza, I took them to mean that they rarely sang in the same language as one another, which is the obvious reading for those lines alone. Then I finished the stanza and went back up for the correct interpretation.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-17 12:47 am (UTC)I wonder if Alicia could be enticed to help make a record of those languages. I'm pretty sure Aidan could.
It occurs to me that if anything ever hit the fan with Aidan or the Finns bigger than what ordinary measures could defend, the number and variety of capes that would show up would quickly resemble a very large Harlequin costume... and the conversation would run like "YOU?!" "Yeah, me. Shut up and let's help." "Right!" WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM.... I would not want to be a fly on the wall for that
battlemassacree (deliberately spelling it Arlo-style), I don't have the stomach for it. What I *would* want to be a fly on the wall for would be the resulting Solvay-Conference-style meeting of the minds to the effect of "HEY! We all seem to have at least some common goals here, can we establish some rules of engagement and see where we go from there?"Ooooh. Polychrome/Schrodinger's crossover? The Tesseract is certainly capable of producing things that need to be handled NOWNOWNOW...
......
And the feast Pat(?) would produce after-battle (and indeed, mid-session) would, knowing you, have us *all* slobbering on our keyboards... :)
(After all, *everything's* bigger in Texas. Including the sugar concentration in the tea. ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-17 01:22 am (UTC)All I can think is, please put me back in the river, for I am paddle to the sea.
Yes ...
Date: 2018-01-17 02:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-17 01:27 am (UTC)Wow!
Date: 2018-01-17 02:00 am (UTC)Re: Wow!
Date: 2018-01-17 02:30 pm (UTC)Or, it could be part of the warning: a horse would have been a familiar work animal, and a kelpie is instead the "wolf in sheep's clothing."
Re: Wow!
Date: 2018-01-17 08:55 pm (UTC)That makes sense.
>> Or, it could be part of the warning: a horse would have been a familiar work animal, and a kelpie is instead the "wolf in sheep's clothing." <<
Often it's this -- one of the kelpie's powers was to entice someone onto their back, fasten them in place with magic, then dive into the water to drown and eat the rider. It's a cautionary tale about the potential danger of horses, and of course water.
goes to sit near Judd
Date: 2018-01-17 05:59 pm (UTC)Re: goes to sit near Judd
Date: 2018-01-17 07:44 pm (UTC)Re: goes to sit near Judd
Date: 2018-01-18 01:08 am (UTC)Re: goes to sit near Judd
Date: 2018-01-18 02:07 am (UTC)Well...
Date: 2020-06-07 11:34 am (UTC)It was lovely to see Alicia and Saraphina playing together and teaching each other. Loved seeing Heidi learn how to craft boats from materials new to her.
Continuing onto the next poem :)
~Angel
Re: Well...
Date: 2020-06-07 11:50 am (UTC)LOL yes, especially in Celtic territory.
>> It was lovely to see Alicia and Saraphina playing together and teaching each other. Loved seeing Heidi learn how to craft boats from materials new to her.<<
Alicia is a bastion of children's folklore.