Big pan or leetle feet?
I like old things, they make me feel
young.
I like that they have lived
and show it and I have not
and do not.
Each scratch only adds to their appeal.
If I revealed my imperfections
I would be considered
damaged.
But I am not for looking at
like old things.
A wonderful leather bag....I suppose as we get older, older and older things are needed.
ReplyDeleteHi, Joe, you might be onto something there. The satchel has been with me since I was eleven so we're growing old gracefully together - I reckon I'll hold up longer with less wrinkles though! I haven't had to stitch my sided yet - no matter how much I've laughed. Cheers for popping by.
ReplyDeleterachel i have that very peak district map! it's the only one i kept from my walk from derbyshire up to scotland along the pennine way route. old things? i like their worn downness, their comfort, their filled with memoryness. have a peaceful day. steven
ReplyDeleteI'm a great believer in old leather satchels. I have a square one, just big enough for a decent sketchbook.
ReplyDeleteHave you read Nabokov's Speak, Memory yet?
I seem to have missed some of the things going on at your blog, here.
ReplyDeleteI like the old things too and all the poetry they bring about. The boots are adorable and the pan... I love those pans and I need a big one too. I have a friend who badly fears old things though, because of the unsorted energy they might carry. I don't know, I just got reminded of her.
I had a satchel quite like that one (great word 'satchel'). Mine is long gone though!
ReplyDeletex
I think all really good writers, have an appreciation for (as Leslie says) venerable things. They have the ability to reminisce, conjure up associations and re-delight readers. You don't have to respond to this compliment - get back to you writing!
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to look like an old thing, maybe why I like old things—except that I've always liked old things. The satchel and the journal are wonderful, and that map is to die for.
ReplyDeleteOne of the labels I use on my blog posts once in awhile is what I call "venerable things". They have character. This was lovely of you to share with us, Rachel!
ReplyDeleteWhat is that in the second image, Rachel. It looks gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteHa, Steven, SNAP!
ReplyDeleteI like the softness of them (aside from the pan!) and the fact that they have (mostly) lived other lives before me. Thanks.
Thomas - no - ordering it now though! Thanks for the reminder. A sketch book/notepad is exactly what gets carried in mine. I'm not a handbag person but I love my satchel.
Lori - I'll add "unsorted energy" to all my other unsorted things then. No wonder my house is such a mess! I like that contrasting view point. Thanks.
Thank you , Nik.
Rachel - it is a cool word - not great for rhyming poetry though :) Sorry to hear of the loss of your satchel!
Kass - it was Leslie who reminded me of my pendant - I think artists are the same - it's about having an eye for the details and giving the objects context, I think. Probably have more eloquent thoughts I should blog about this subject one day.
As for replying (or not), I will always reply when I can - I love reading your thoughts/comments! Thanks for sticking with me!
Mike - you made me chuckle! I've always liked old things, too. Possibly because there are no old people in my family. Glad you like the things. Thanks.
Leslie - it was your venerable things which prompted my memory with the pendant - thank you!
Happy to share my happy things!
donna - You mean the pendant? It's the one made for my eighteenth birthday. It's got a threepence set inside blue resin with a silver clasp and chain. I like the mix of new (resin) and old (threepenny). The book is George Eliot's Scenes of Clerical Life (published 1921, World Classics).
Thanks.
I could look at maps all day... Your satchel looks to have many more years of miles to travel with you.
ReplyDeleteI've missed you since you've been away - nice to read you!
Your comment about Davy Crockett had me laughing - you're so right - not many people could pull off that hat, let alone make it the must have imagination accessory it became during my childhood!
ReplyDeleteHi, GW - if I ever make aby money out of writing I plan to have the map framed, then I can look at it all day too without fear of it disintegrating or being munched by bugs!
ReplyDeleteGlad to have made you laugh! It's just that if you'd have worn that hat where I grew up you'd have found either it or yourself doing some assisted backwards surfing through a hedgerow at some point or being ridiculed to the point of combustion!
I really like the layout of this, with each small declaration thrown down like a playing card. And I like the contrast drawn between artifact and self.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dick, I appreciate you noticing. This poem has spawned a lot of more detailed poems on the same theme but this is the most direct and simplest one - the starting point.
ReplyDeleteyup I agree with you...old things have a fragrance of their own, one that brings back loads of memories :)
ReplyDeleteLoved you leather bag :)
This is my first visit to your blog, youre doing a great job and I wish you all the very best for your future posts..happy blogging!!!!!!!
http://www.aspaceofonesown.blogspot.com
Thank you, Sana, I appreciate the feedback - especially when it's so good ;) Ditto with the blogging!
ReplyDeleteHe he! Just linked to you and it worked - yay :) (sometimes html doesn't work for me properly!) I like what you've written here. Very thought provoking. Also the pictures.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how to do that! Trying to use the comments thing just via my hotmail so that i don't have to open my blog and get distracted by everyones lovely posts all at once! Bit hit and miss with it - needs fine tuning! Cheers! I always come away from your blog wanting to try something completely different!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I've mentioned but I really like your new profile picture - viewed tiny it appears you are staring through the jaws of a great white (to my strange imagination!). Very cool! (obviously aesthetically - in reality, probably less so.....dum de dum....)
Technology is a funny thing! I just leapt into blogging without knowing much about it when I first began it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliment about the pic! That's a sculpture in the gardens of the Aigantighe art gallery in Timaru. I liked the strange look of that picture too. I'm a bit camera shy or else grin ridiculously :) You look mysterious in your profile picture - it's cool.
Same here - still know relatively little. Probably best though - I waste enough time as it is!
ReplyDeleteNo probs - it's a cool pic! Grinning is an issue for me, too! I swear I have more than a complimentary dose of race horse in my genes! Mysterious is good (beats cheesy grin!) - that'll be the half light! I tried it in the dark but the effect wasn't so good! (Though preferably for me. Shyness is a bummer).
Lovley old things - mmm.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on FISH shortlist - yay!
Uh?? Am I on it???
ReplyDeleteThe Link won't work!! Aargh...
ReplyDeleteWeeeee! Thank so much for letting me know, N xx
ReplyDeleteA map of the Peak District - a touch of what the Welsh call "hiraeth"?
ReplyDeleteI lived in Wales for two years, Dominic, so I'm quite fond of nostalgia - but even through the most rosy of spectacles I still wouldn't go back there!
ReplyDeleteSpending my 21st birthday alone in a lodgings that even Gordon Comstock would deem beneath him!!
Nostalgia's what we call the difference between objects/actualities and memories. The bits we lost or don't want to admit to/revisit.
Thanks for calling by! Will be visiting you again soon!!
Once old it's difficult to know whether they look travel weary or travel hardened, like the leather bag in the picture, so rugged.
ReplyDeleteI keep much of them as well. They'll serve as my milestones long after the roads I travelled on will be forsaken by newer maps!
I think, possibly, a little of both, Anil. I'm sure they won't bounce back so easily through wear and tear now as they once did.
ReplyDeleteNewer maps, re-named places, changing boundaries but still one and the same; I hope my things will hold a memory of me.