The ice cream drip of summer days
leaves sticky stains on memories
steeped in salt and vinegar, candy floss,
egg sandwiches and seaside rock.
Faded black and white photos lack
the sunny glare of beach towels,
the welcome rainbow of parasols,
barking dogs and beach balls
bouncing in the sea and then the thrill
of penny arcade and postcard rack,
with a surreptitious peek at rude ones
before choosing several to send back
to family and friends you wished could be
with you beside the seaside, beside the sea.
Kim M. Russell, 28th July 2018
My poem for Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Weekend Mini Challenge: At the Seaside also linked to Poets United Poetry Pantry.
I’m looking forward to reading poems in response to my Toads challenge this weekend, which is all about the seaside, postcards and memories of summer holidays.
I adore, really adore this poem. The photograph I am assuming is you as a child… just love. I truly hope to live close to the ocean someday. Sigh. Makes me want to go and write another poem. If I have time I just might as this is one of my favorite topics to write about.
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Thank you so much, Margaret. Please post another poem as it’s one of my favourite topics too.
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“The ice cream drip of summer days…” Wish I had written that!
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Thank you, Margaret!
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This is the seaside I remember from childhood. I LOVE the photo! So cute!
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Thank you, Sherry!
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This is the wonder of seaside i have only read about… but perfect in all its details. The arcade games and naughty cards add a dimension that made me smile.
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I’m pleased I made you smile, Bjorn!
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AH, the job is well done when you can make the reader feel nostalgic for your own lived experience.
I like the seamless edges of this memory, with the tiny details and that satisfying end of having written a postcard to the loved ones who are absent.
-HA
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Thank you so much, HA.
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I absolutely adore this poem, Kim 💜 The image of “ice cream drip of summer days” brings back memories of long and happy childhood summers 😊
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Thank you so much, Sanaa! I love it when one of my poems has an effect on another poet – especially when it;’s you. 🙂
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Wonderful imagery!!
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Thank you!
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Your opening line is brilliant Kim as is the rest that follows.
Your words echo my memories of days at the beach too and the wonder the innocence and simple joys of childhood.
Anna :o]
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Thank you, Anna! 🙂
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Well done – a delight for the senses.
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Thank you!
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kaykuala
The ice cream drip of summer days
leaves sticky stains on memories
Perfect opening, Kim! The second line is classic, relating ice cream to the memory is a wonderful way to describe it!
Hank
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Thank you so much, Hank!
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Oh, you so nailed it! Only the penny arcade and postcard rack were absent from the beaches I grew up on.
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Thank you, Rosemary! I think I’l link it up to Poetry Pantry today.
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Having spent many happy holidays with relatives on the south coast of Britain this was exactly how my memory recalls those years after the end of WW2. Having aunts uncles and grandparents there we could have two lives those of beachgoers and that of locals well as we were so well versed in best beaches, best restaurants and for me the best places for kids spending money in the penny arcades!
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We used to get a coach down to the south coast early in the morning and return tired and sandy in the evening after spending the pennies and threepenny bits my nan saved up in an old Robinson’s jam jar!
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Lovely seaside memories
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Thank you!
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A wonderful memory – full of life
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Thank you, Jae!
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On my recent trip to Cape Town my daughter asked me to send her a postcard.. so I did. No easy task to (a) find a postcard (b) buy a stamp (c) find a postbox… needless to say, it has still not reached her.
Sometimes I feel like an anachronism.
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I know what you mean, Kerry! The only postcards I have received over the last couple of years have been from my daughter and one of my friends. I love postcards, sending and receiving them. The choosing of a postcard in another city, a museum or a gallery, for example, is such a private activity, when you are thinking of what you would love to drop through your letterbox and matching it up with the person whose letterbox you want to drop a postcard through – and then it goes out into the world, similar to a poem.
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You have set the scene beautifully, and I can feel the anticipation of trying to choose just the right post card and thinking of all one has to say. Sad that sending postcards seems to be a lost art. I would guess the younger generation, in the age of email, will never know the pleasure of sending or receiving.
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Thank you, Mary. I will try to ensure that my grandson sends and receives postcards and letters!
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Only have one memory of a seaside beach visit, in 1984, dad, younger brother and I visited White Rock, B.C. Famous for its annual sand castle contest. Sadly, no place on the beach for postcards.
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The first stanza made me hungry, the second added nostalgia to the hunger, the third made me smirk (in conspiratorial glee), the last… the last made me sigh, there is something about the way your use of repetition makes me want to close my eyes and daydream everyone I love close to me.
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I remember years ago, when I was trying to explain my thoughts/feelings about a specific event in my life, wishing for the ability to transfer my memories like film with all the senses from my brain to theirs. Now I know that is what poems are for! 😊
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Yes!
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What a beautiful poem…seaside memories are always the most vivid memories, aren’t they? And I love your contrast of the vibrant memories against the old black and white photograph.
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Thank you for reading and commenting, Sherri.
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Yes. Exactly. You bring it front and center in all my senses.
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😊
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This made me smile. It is vivid and unique!
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Thank you!
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Your poem filled me with joy, left me wanting more, much more.
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Thank you, Helen!
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This is utterly lovely. You have taken a theme – that so many can relate to – and rendered it exquisitely. I can’t imagine the memory of those magical summer days expressed more evocatively. A pleasure to read!
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Many thanks, Wendy!
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There’s a magic change with going to the beach. You captured the spell well. I liked your “ice cream summer” best.
.
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Thank you, Jim.
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Love the sticky icecream stains on memories…
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Thanks Rajani.
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Wonderful work! I considered something formal, but know I would have gotten lazy, leaned in with a couple haiku or something. Saluting your effort!
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Thank you, Ron!
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How fun to be by the sea!!
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⚓🚣🌞
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Dear Kim
Monday WRites 165 is live. I invite you to link in
much love…
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Thank you, Gillena! I’ll be a long later.
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Lovely memories Kim. You have captured them well in your beautiful poem. I love that photo!!
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Thank you, Carrie!
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YES! Excellent my friend.
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Thank you so much!
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