"Eden Rock" by Charley Causley (poetry reading)

A projection of the afterlife, drawn from idyllic memories of childhood. He pictures his parents as they used to be when he was a child.

Most parents take photographs and videos of their children to provide lasting memories to treasure in later years. But very few take pictures of themselves - and it is pictures of the parents that the children will want to see: that is what THEY saw at the time.

Women grow conscious of the toll taken by passing years and become more and more reluctant to be photographed, often unwilling to admit that any photograph is a good likeness. Some even go through the family photograph album and destroy nearly every picture of themselves. Yet, the way they are is the way their loved ones see them, every day, and exactly how they want to remember them in times to come.

Incidentally, there's no such place as Eden Rock. Charles made it up. Sounds like something Elvis would sing. And, of course, Eden was a nice place according to the Bible.
About Charles Causley
http://www.cornwall24.net/magazine/memories-charles-causley-cbe/


They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden Rock:
My father, twenty-five, in the same suit
Of Genuine Irish Tweed, his terrier Jack
Still two years old and trembling at his feet.

My mother, twenty-three, in a sprigged dress
Drawn at the waist, ribbon in her straw hat,
Has spread the stiff white cloth over the grass.
Her hair, the colour of wheat, takes on the light.

She pours tea from a Thermos, the milk straight
From an old H.P. sauce-bottle, a screw
Of paper for a cork; slowly sets out
The same three plates, the tin cups painted blue.

The sky whitens as if lit by three suns.
My mother shades her eyes and looks my way
Over the drifted stream. My father spins
A stone along the water. Leisurely,

They beckon to me from the other bank.
I hear them call, "See where the stream-path is!
Crossing is not as hard as you might think."
I had not thought that it would be like this.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Eden Rock
• Charley
• Causley
• Poetry
• Poem

[aspokenpoetsverse]

brilliant!

[franielee38]

Beautiful poem and beautiful reading!

[mzim144659]

This brings to mind the idyllic end of Wild Strawberries, where he sees his long dead parents beside the water. (on youtube: wild strawberries final scene)

[vudu8ball]

eeeow! This one pierced my heart. I often think of Einstien's idea that the past and future exist like rooms in a house, that our consiousness is some how moving from room to room but thre rooms and what happened in them remain. This gives me comfort in troubled times. I think about lovely days I have had, am having, will always have in some other time room. Stonewall Jackson's (Confederate Civil War general) last words were, "lets cross the river and go into the trees." Thanks

[paulpellicci]

...this poem makes me sad because I understand completely but less sad than a fog at night where we pass towards some light....

[scifiwritir1]

Oh so lovely! And for me so true. After a certain age, for me anyway, even with so many friends on this side, I begin to feel I have more friends on the other side Eden. Thanks so much. No raging against the dying of the light when the time comes.