Poetry Where You Live: Maine

Showing posts with label Maine. Show all posts

Friday, March 08, 2024

I can still see #Katahdin #MountKatahdin

I can still see Katahdin,
in my mind, in my imagination.
The Mountain's image is imprinted,
on my spirit, on my soul...

Katahdin is different in each season,
but the Mountain is majestic, in power;
The Great Mountain remains,
for me to dream, to conjure at will...

I can still see Katahdin,
in my mind, in my imagination.
The Mountain's image is imprinted,
on my spirit, on my soul...

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

#Wyatt chose me my #Dipper

Sitting on the kitchen floor, waiting, watching,
a sea of yorkies running, circling, barking,
racing around and around, a hurricane,
like sitting inside of a washer on spin cycle.

He was shy, but bold, knowing, seeing me,
crossing space between us, coming,
climbing carefully up into my lap,
He chose me to be his human.

----------------

February 27, 2024

Wyatt chose me

https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2024/02/wyatt-chose-me.html

The day Wyatt chose me

12/13/21 Facebook post after the death of my dog Wyatt

https://www.facebook.com/raymond.a.foss/posts/pfbid028hSGD8SMcRKy1xbL5iDFD7Nce9EBtd1wW6uYXLQGTMryep95PdQdvmJuYwar9MqQl
In this season of gratitude, sometimes sadness brings clarity, at least about some of the things that are important.

I lost my brother Wyatt (my Yorkshire Terrier) two years ago today, December 13, 2019.

He was 18 years old and a member of our family for 9 years. He had grown up at a breeder for the first 7 years of his life as a stud dog and he lived the next 2 years with another breeder who treated him more like a family member. When we first got him I learned he didn’t know how to play. He was my friend and companion, spending a lot of his time in my lap.

He chose me the day we went to Carol’s house to get a yorkie. I sat on the floor in her kitchen, with a whole herd of yorkies running around, and he climbed up into my lap.

I was away from home for work related training the last week of his life. Ruth said he was barking calling for me the last day. When I came home Ruth placed him into my arms and I sat down with him and he died in my lap with me petting him, within 5 minutes. As hard as that must have been for him, he waited for Dad to come home.

Such was the depth of his love and our bond together.

I’m crying typing these words just as I did on that Christmas morning when Erica gave me the gift of a painting of Wyatt’s spirit that she painted. It is hanging on the wall over my computer screen.
He was my brother, my friend, a pain in the butt for peeing on the floor when there was a clean pee pad available.

His presence in my lap with me typing away on the computer gave me peace and stroking his fur was just like stroking the hair of any other loved one. He would sit there in the crook of my crossed legs so long that my left leg would always go numb and I would fumble around with my leg asleep whenever I had to get up quickly. He would look up at me just so and I always knew he loved me.
So grateful he was gifted into my life. That’s a start for now…

----------------
(first posted January 4, 2020 as part of 21 Days of Gratitude)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/488435655364402/posts/496022011272433/
12/25/19 Facebook post about painting of Wyatt by Erica
https://www.facebook.com/raymond.a.foss/posts/pfbid0SvNZ2Y2Fxu1kp66NwzxWvRhahJbrFWft7D9MpW6R1gcKjaK8uq1d2ExEn8UHQcUGl
12/13/19 Facebook post on Wyatt’s death
https://www.facebook.com/raymond.a.foss/posts/pfbid04yxyQVFBNTpkWuzLjwM6nRMbeLaDpY8EPkydGzJ6Nv9eBBNuurH2XBYpRrPDHNGJl

poetry, dog, friend, family, love, Wyatt, Yorkie, New Hampshire, Maine, friendship, devotion,

#poetry #dog #friend #family #love #Wyatt #Yorkie #NewHampshire #Maine #friendship #devotion

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

A week on your mountain – v2 #Sugarloaf

years melted away,
a week on your mountain,
just up from the Blue Ox,
spending time together,
as one, a family…

skiing together,
old ways so familiar,
smelling the wax,
heading for the slopes,
one more time…

--------------------
Edited February 14, 2024
A week on your mountain – v2

&
Edited February 8, 2024
A Clear Day – v2
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-clear-day-v2.html
Edited February 8, 2024
Like tears in rain – v4
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2024/02/like-tears-in-rain-v4.html
February 8, 2024
A Clear Day
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-clear-day.html
About the Sunday before Mom passed on Friday
(see highlighted notes below)
and after reading the poem, “Alzheimer’s”
by Anthony Walton
&
Edited June 28, 2022
Like tears in rain – v3
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2022/06/like-tears-in-rain-v3.html
Edited June 27, 2022
Like tears in rain – v2
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2022/06/like-tears-im-rain-v2.html
Edited June 26, 2022
Like tears in rain
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2022/06/like-tears-in-rain.html
Edited June 25, 2022
Like tears in the rain – v2
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2022/06/like-tears-in-rain-v2.html
June 25, 2022
(Like) Tears in the rain
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2022/06/tears-in-rain.html
&
edited March 13, 2015
Struggle – v3
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2015/03/struggle-v3.html
edited November 27, 2014
Struggle – v2
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2014/11/struggle-v2.html
Thanksgiving Day
August 18, 2004 21:53
Struggle
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2004/08/struggle.html
&
Edited January 14, 2024
Dripping with memory – v2
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2024/01/dripping-with-memory-v2.html
January 19, 2022
Dripping with memory
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2022/01/dripping-with-memory.html
&
January 11, 2022
Older than dad ever was
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2022/01/older-than-dad-ever-was.html
January 4, 2022
just before the mandates, the pandemic
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2022/01/just-before-mandates-pandemic.html
January 10, 2020
Obituary for Patricia Ann Ring Foss Cobb
https://www.cremationsocietyofsc.com/obituaries/Patricia-Cobb-2/#!/Obituary
https://www.eagletimes.com/obituaries/patricia-a-ring-foss-cobb/article_648ce713-d56b-541f-b6c2-ba2932501331.html
January 25, 2020
my Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/raymond.a.foss/posts/10157231482093003
So blessed to be able to attend and participate in the Celebration of Life for mom today at Grace River. I cannot express how much I appreciate the love and caring shown by those who attended and/or those who sent flowers, thoughts, and prayers to our family over the last two weeks.
Here are my notes for my time of sharing - for Celebration of Life of Patricia Ann Ring Foss Cobb:
Good morning, thank you for coming, for showing us all your love for Mom and for us all by being here today. For those who don’t know me, I’m Ray, mom and dad’s oldest. When I came along on April Fool’s Day 1960, Mom was twenty-five. A fact that was really problematic when I myself was twenty-five, because that meant mom was FIFTY…
I am definitely Mom and Dad’s son – analytical like dad (wanting to do it right), but I start tasks like mom (want it done)… Unfortunately that means (for me), that I am great at starting things, but not so good at finishing (sort of like the custom kitchen cabinets that dad started building for mom in the kitchen that weren’t done until shortly before we moved…).
When I got the call from Sandy and Becky that Mom had gone home to heaven two weeks ago today at about midnight, I was sad that she was gone but I was so joyful for the end of this journey for mom, just as I had been for Grammy Ring.
I was so happy for the clear day that God had gifted us the prior Sunday when I got to talk with mom twice, saying I love you and her saying I love you, how Sandy and I made a joyful noise singing Jesus Loves Me to her. She said a strong “Yes” when we talked a second time that she knew she was a child of God, that she was ready to go home to heaven, that she knew God the Father, Jesus, and all her loved ones who had gone before were waiting to greet her home.
Mom was the first one who loved me, who taught me about God and Jesus. She was active in her faith. My first memory of that was in the Methodist church in Westfield, at some young adults youth group or something. After we moved to Second Congregational, she was active there too. I never doubted her love for me, her encouraging me all throughout my life, and I always knew just how strong her depth of faith was, how important God and Christ were in her life.
She was my first teacher, the one who taught me to love books, who pushed me to do more in school. She was my typist too, before I learned to type. I don’t know how many times she and I were up late or up early working on a school paper I pushed to the last minute.
Mom was my constant in my life. She was the homeroom parent when I went to Abner Gibbs School. Years later she laughed in sharing with me that I called her Mrs. Foss when she was at school and mom when she was at home. I guess I needed both of them.
One special thing we shared, started with my Sunday School and Grammy Foss was May Day baskets. On May 1 every year for 55 years, I would give mom a May Day basket. In the early years on Squawfield Road, they would be maple tree flowers, tulips and dandelions. One year, when she was working for Dave, her “basket” was faxed to her at Communication Connections.
More than her faith, if that is possible, family was everything to mom, something that the Ring family certainly taught her. The connection was so real, the love and joy so palpable, even when we were all crammed into their small dining room as the family grew. That was so special.
Like everything, mom didn’t do things halfway. She worked hard in everything she did. That was something she learned from her mom and dad too. When Grampa got done with the YMCA in Westfield, they replaced him with three people.
Like Grammy Foss, who was known as the Cookie Lady in Springfield, mom cared for others, offering her life to share love with others, starting with family, through her faith life, and continuing as a CNA after she cared for Grammy Ring.
One story about her wanting things done… I came home from YMCA Camp Shepard in Westfield one summer day to find mom and Grampa Ring, one with a crowbar and one with a pry-bar, getting ready to take down the outside wall between the kitchen and the porch. Dad, if memory serves, came in to have it done his way. And I remember the work to do the transition between the floors of the kitchen and the porch (because they didn’t match).
Mom always showed her love in so many ways. In 1969, I had to have knee surgery. She was there with me throughout the three months I was at home in my full-length cast. She even took me around for trick or treat for UNICEF, because I wasn’t going to go out at night for regular trick or treating. The only downside was that the TV and my chair were in the same room, so I watched her soap operas too.
I left home at 18 years old in 1978 to go to UNH. I remember leaving mom and dad almost at the curb when I checked into my dorm, Gibbs Hall. They had taught me and had given me wings. I was ready to fly.
I went home in summer of 1979 and worked at Holsum Bakery on the roll oven. That was the last time I lived at home. I worked crazy hours and I’m sure I must have been a grumpy older brother to Matt and Becky, as the tv room was next to my bedroom.
Mom taught me civic mindedness, something that led me to student government at UNH, to working with and for non-profits through my work life and running for the School Board. She and I would often talk politics, which was always interesting because we often voted differently.
I remember so well mom and dad being Baptized here in the fall of 1990. I was so glad to be here with my siblings to watch that moment, as I was so glad to be here for mom and Richard’s wedding fifteen years after dad died.
I am so joyful for the way God gifted all of us for the time in January 1991, after Sandy and Peter and family were gifted time that Christmas, with mom and dad at Sugarloaf. We all got to be together sharing skiing and family time on that mountain dad loved. I remember so well mom posing for pictures in her outfit that fit her so well. And I so remember the last time I saw mom and dad together, when all of the rest of us headed home. They stayed an extra day at Sugarloaf Inn. The last image I have of them was mom and dad like a pair of teenage lovers skiing off together with smiles on their faces.
Mom and I returned to Sugarloaf March 2, 2001, to spreading dad’s ashes there. We spoke aloud her name and the names of all of us children as we released his remains to the mountain and to the wind.
And, Mom, we will be going back to that mountain later this year to spread yours remains there too, joining your physical body with dad’s, just as you today are at home in heaven with him and all of our loved ones who passed before you did.
&
edited February 20, 2021
A perfect week – v2
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-perfect-week-v2.html
merged, edited February 20, 2021
In the arms of the mountain – v2
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/02/in-arms-of-mountain-v2.html
February 20, 2021
in the arms of the mountain
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/02/in-arms-of-mountain.html
February 20, 2021
A week on your mountain
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-week-on-your-mountain.html
February 20, 2021
A perfect week
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-perfect-week.html
&
June 17, 2018
It seems like yesterday
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2018/06/it-seems-like-yesterday.html
Fathers’ Day
about our ski trip together January 1991
before my father’s black ice fatal accident
Valentine’s Day – February 14, 1991

All of my poems, photographs, and videos are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. All rights are reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss (raymondafoss@gmail.com) for usage. See all 53,000+ of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com Poetry Where You Live.

Sugarloaf, Maine, poem, poetry, skiing, father, God, love, memories, mountain, Nature, Poetry Where You Live, snow, winter, mile marker 19, family, Valentine’s Day,

#Sugarloaf #Maine #skiing #poem #poetry #father #God #hope #love #memories #mountain #Nature #snow #wind #winter #ashes #family #son #mother #wife #husband #ValentinesDay

---------------

poetry, God, Alzheimers, Blade Runner, legacy, faith, Spirit, soul, time, memories, life, immortality, eternal, struggle, dementia, disease, Alzheimer, Alzheimer’s Disease,

#poetry #God #Alzheimers #bladerunner #legacy #faith #Spirit #soul #time #memories #life #immortality #eternal #struggle #dementia #disease #Alzheimer #alzheimersdisease

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

A ribbon of footprints – v2

Their hooves drawing a line,
a ribbon of footprints,
at the edge of the ditches,
banks above the highway
roadways we traveled,
in the frozen north…

A ribbon of footprints,
deer of these forests,
drawing a beautiful line,
separating mankind,
from the wild, nature,
forests beyond…

----------
Edited January 31, 2024
A ribbon of footprints – v2

January 31, 2021
A ribbon of footprints
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/a-ribbon-of-footprints.html
January 31, 2021
Blown off the ice below
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/blown-off-ice-below.html
January 31, 2021
the black ribbon of the roadway
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-black-ribbon-of-roadway.html
January 31, 2021
A tunnel through the woodlands
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/a-tunnel-through-woodlands.html
January 31, 2021
Different textures of winter
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/different-textures-of-winter.html
edited January 31, 2021
like sand dunes - v3
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/like-sand-dunes-v3.html
January 30, 2021
like sand dunes – v2
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/like-sand-dunes-v2.html
January 30, 2021
like sand dunes
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/like-sand-dunes.html
edited, new name January 30, 2021
fields, hills, miles of fondant
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/fields-hills-miles-of-fondant.html
January 30, 2021
miles of fondant
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/miles-of-fondant.html
edited January 30, 2021
gold under the white – v2
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/gold-under-white-v2.html
January 30, 2021
gold under the white
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/gold-under-white.html
January 30, 2021
silting the roadway
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/silting-roadway.html
January 30, 2021
pillows in the branches
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/pillows-in-branches.html
January 30, 2021
so many textures
https://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2021/01/so-many-textures.html
Patten to Houlton to Presque Isle to Patten again
edited December 15, 2015
&
Smell of Snow – v4
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2015/12/smell-of-snow-v4.html
(merging edits to version 3 and version 2)
edited December 9, 2015
Smell of Snow – v3
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2015/12/smell-of-snow-v3.html
(editing original)
Edited November 28, 2012
“Smell of Snow – v2”
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2012/11/smell-of-snow-v2.html
Friday, December 03, 2004 8:27
“Smell of Snow”
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2004/12/smell-of-snow.html
and other poems
December 1, 2012
like sprinkled sugar
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2012/12/like-sprinkled-sugar.html
&
edited December 9, 2015
Snow in the Air – v6
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2015/12/snow-in-air-v6.html
(editing original)
edited November 27, 2015
Snow in the Air – v5
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2015/11/snow-in-air-v5.html
(merging edits to original and version 4)
edited November 22, 2015
Snow in the air – v4
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2015/11/snow-in-air-v4.html
(editing original)
Edited August 3, 2013
“Snow in the Air – v3
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2013/08/snow-in-air-v3.html
(editing original)
Edited September 20, 2012
“Snow in the Air – v2”
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2012/09/snow-in-air-v2.html
December 30, 2006 12:08
“Snow in the Air”
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2006/12/snow-in-air.html

All of my poems, photographs, and videos are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. All rights are reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss (raymondafoss@gmail.com) for usage. See all 53,000+ of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com Poetry Where You Live.

dance, daughter, January, Faith, Family, God, hope, joy, light, Nature, Maine, Poetry Where You Live, smells, snow, texture, touch, white, winter, poem, poetry,

#poem #poetry #dance #daughter #January #Faith #Family #God #hope #joy #light #Nature #smells #snow #texture #touch #white #winter

Poetry Where You Live

Friday, March 08, 2024

I can still see #Katahdin #MountKatahdin

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

#Wyatt chose me my #Dipper

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

A week on your mountain – v2 #Sugarloaf

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

A ribbon of footprints – v2

Labels

Pages

Followers

Blog Archive

Links

About Me