First Love
We were together three years, you and I.
The sketch you drew of The Beatles
for my bedroom wall was so good,
far too good to be torn
into a thousand pieces.
I let them flutter from the bedroom
window among the snow, hoping
they would melt with the thaw
but they were still there and
I had to sweep them away.
And I hoped that if I unravelled
every stitch from the jumper I knit you,
hurtful memories would uravel too,
but they just lay there in a shrivelled
heap, much more bitter than sweet.
Your mother sent me a kind letter
saying how much she liked me
with a well-meaning
consolation prize,
nylon stockings,
American tan with seams.
I never wore them;
I preferred tights.
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Apr 12, 2012 @ 11:56:28
Hi Christine,
what a great poem! This is moving and still that sense of humour is there too, I absolutely adore this poem. The loss af a (first) love, it is such a pain, and you describe so well, the tearing apart of the scetch and the jumper… And then the last lines 🙂 Good for you girl! 🙂
I think this is the best poem I have read in a long time.
{{{ Christine }}}
love xx
Apr 12, 2012 @ 12:07:11
Wow Ina, what a lovely comment! You have paid me a great compliment here! I will savour it, thank you 🙂
Love and hugs
Christine xx
Apr 12, 2012 @ 12:10:39
hey it is the truth! 🙂
Apr 12, 2012 @ 11:56:59
sketch not scetch 🙂
Apr 12, 2012 @ 12:08:05
:):) xx
Apr 12, 2012 @ 12:01:21
Loved it, Christine! You know, most of us can relate to your words, and it feels good to read how creatively you put those feelings. Wonderful!
Apr 12, 2012 @ 12:08:52
Thank you Sandy for this lovely comment. It is greatly appreciated.
Christine
Apr 12, 2012 @ 12:26:31
Christine, you are a masterful poetess!!! The emotional energy of this poem is as alive as the imagery– so well matched and full of bittersweet, retrospectively humorous insights! I think that may be one of the things I most enjoy about your writing: the authenticity of feeling and experience that emerges through it. Right down to the end of this poem – with the absurdity of the well-meaning consolation prize – it simply singes with the pain of first love loss. It’s so appropriate. Thanks for this smile to my day! Blessings on yours!! Hugs, Angela
Apr 12, 2012 @ 13:30:13
Angela, this is a really lovely comment and is so very much appreciated.
“Singes with the pain of first love loss” – There is a poem in this line!:)
Much love to you
Christine xx
Apr 12, 2012 @ 12:38:36
Ah the loss of a first love expressed so well here. I love the torn scetch thrown in the snow and the consolation prize which you never wore. Masterfully written Christine 🙂
Apr 12, 2012 @ 13:31:13
Thank you very much.
This comment gives me great encouragement
Christine
Apr 12, 2012 @ 14:03:19
This is fabulous Christine, I love it. Unravelling the jumper, that really hits home!
Apr 12, 2012 @ 16:30:26
Thank you very much David, glad you liked it!
Christine
Apr 12, 2012 @ 14:51:35
Great unpacking of the feeling of loss. I love it.
Apr 12, 2012 @ 16:31:04
Thank you very much for this comment
Christine
Apr 12, 2012 @ 16:26:55
So painful, and memorable.
Apr 12, 2012 @ 16:31:47
Thank you Susan1 It was a long time ago but… 🙂
Christine
Apr 12, 2012 @ 17:46:14
Oh WOW, Christine–this one’s so good it pinches and stings my heart. Well done!! God bless you today.
Apr 14, 2012 @ 16:00:34
Thank you Caddo for your loely comment!
Much love to you
Christine xx
Apr 12, 2012 @ 18:59:46
No memories are ever so special as those of that first love–I really like the way you tried to make snowflakes from the torn-up Beatles drawing. Very nicely done, Christine!
Apr 16, 2012 @ 15:36:15
Thank you very much granbee.
You always give me such encouragement and I really do appreciate it.
Much love to you
Christine xx
Apr 13, 2012 @ 00:38:49
Well done, Christine. The imagery evokes the emotions so well.
Apr 13, 2012 @ 01:31:43
Christine, your poetry just keeps getting better and better!! This deserves a “Wow!!” (Oh, I see Caddo already gave you one, but there’s another. 🙂 )
Apr 14, 2012 @ 16:01:54
Thank you Betty, this is a really lovely and encouraging comment.
Two “wows” for one poem!! Can’t be bad!!:)
Much love
Christine xx
Apr 13, 2012 @ 07:10:05
Well done! It is so visceral. I felt like the fly on the wall…
Léa
Apr 14, 2012 @ 16:02:30
Thank you so much for your lovely comment!
Christine
Apr 14, 2012 @ 16:56:47
Thank you. Each of your posts have something to give. Léa
Apr 13, 2012 @ 14:51:42
This is wonderful, Christine – I love the image of ‘unravelling every stitch of the jumper I knit you’; it made me think of the line in Macbeth where Shakespeare talks about ‘sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care’. You’ve captured so many of first love’s turbulent and conflicting emotions with this piece; it’s poignant, bleak, intimate and charged. But your trademark flash of wit leaves us with a smile – albeit a slightly sad one. What greater pleasure could there be? N.xx
Apr 14, 2012 @ 16:05:20
Oh, thank you Nick; this is such a lovely comment.
It was a sad time and although many years ago it still stings a bit. How dare anybody dump me?! I mean, you know, me!!! 🙂
Christine x
Apr 14, 2012 @ 19:46:26
It was his loss. N.xx
Apr 16, 2012 @ 15:38:10
I recognise I was playing my sympathy card Nick. Thank you for your kindness in responding to that!!!:) xx
Apr 13, 2012 @ 18:10:28
Ah Christine, this takes me back. I had a young man who drew me the most wonderful pictures that I destroyed when we had a falling out. I always regretted that once I got over the anger. You’ve captured the moment so well here, with such carefully chosen details…I love the ‘American tans’.
Apr 14, 2012 @ 16:06:50
hank you so much Emma.
I regretted the tearing up of the picture, like you say, after the anger. But at the time it just had to be done!:)
Christine
Apr 13, 2012 @ 20:48:04
lovely poem, Christine! We all remember the pain of 1st love but we can’t always verbalise so succinctly … I love the throwaway last line.
Tom
Apr 14, 2012 @ 16:08:56
Thank you Tom, and lovely to hear from you with this encouraging comment.
He wasn’t really my type anyway!!!! :):) – Easy to say now LOL!
Christine
Apr 13, 2012 @ 21:22:24
I like this one, particularly the last verse with the detailed description of the stockings and then the unexpected “I never wore them / I preferred tights”.
Hugs
Tricia
Apr 14, 2012 @ 16:10:22
Thank you Tricia, I’m pleased that you enjoyed this one.
Don’t forget to send me pics of your furry friends!:)
Love and hugs
Christine xx
Apr 15, 2012 @ 11:19:11
You demonstrate in this poem Christine your increasing confidence in yourself as a poet.
It is terrific. Well done.
I shall restrain myself however from commenting on the length of time you hang on to resentments!!!!! 🙂
Much Love
David
Apr 16, 2012 @ 15:40:58
Thank you very much David!
LOL!! As I said to you, “progress rather than perfection”?? – Ok, I know it’s a lame one!
Maybe the writing of this poem will put it to rest – or maybe not! LOL:):)
Lots of love
Christine
xxx
Apr 15, 2012 @ 20:49:03
Oh Christine, this was a beautiful poem. It touched my heart and many more I am certain, Love to you, Linda
Apr 16, 2012 @ 15:41:47
Thank you Linda, this is a lovely comment
Christine xx
Apr 16, 2012 @ 09:58:08
Christine you capture the feeling as our first love is lost so beautifully, yet with humour and pathos too..I loved this. If only we could unravel and sort our hurt feelings so easily as unpicking a jumper…..clever you – much love 😀 x
Apr 16, 2012 @ 15:42:48
Thank you Jane for your lovely encouraging comment. I really appreciate it:)
Love and hugs to you
Christine xx
Apr 16, 2012 @ 16:59:06
I love this reminiscence…and the last line is a perfect way to express a realization that this love wasn’t really such a good fit after all. (Though that doesn’t mean there isn’t a little wondering still…)
Apr 16, 2012 @ 17:08:10
Thank you very much Diane.
Strangely enough he actually got in touch with me (through Friends Reunited) 18 months ago to apologise!! And he is so so so not my type! LOL 🙂
Much love
Christine x
Apr 17, 2012 @ 12:21:56
Well written Christine. I think your story with a few variations would be familiar to many of us – I know it is to me.
Apr 17, 2012 @ 12:42:37
Thank you Dennis.
We all seem to have gone through something similar at some point in life.
Christine
Apr 17, 2012 @ 18:02:56
Oh, wow! I can feel the ouch and knotted stomach from this poem. The feelings conveyed so well here! Outstanding!
Apr 18, 2012 @ 14:37:59
Thank you so much!
Christine
Apr 20, 2012 @ 14:59:20
How did I miss this one?!
I think it’s all been said by the other commenters, but I had to add my own. Yes, I had one of these – ahhhh, first love… *sigh, leans back in chair while the world goes fuzzy, melts back to images of youthful Holly walking the Malvern hills with cute young boy…*
Though his mother never bought me hosiery!
It’s the small details that make your poems for me Christine – they ground your words into a reality that so many of us relate to. Wonderful. x
Apr 23, 2012 @ 12:01:20
Thank you so much Holly. This is a really encouraging comment and is so much appreciated
Christine xx
Apr 23, 2012 @ 16:02:36
You’re very welcome. 🙂
Apr 21, 2012 @ 11:44:14
Great poem, Christine, and I love these lines. Quite remarkable ones.
And I hoped that if I unravelled
every stitch from the jumper I knit you,
hurtful memories would unravel too,
Our First love we seem to remember for always…
love and hugs, Francina xxx
Apr 23, 2012 @ 12:02:21
Thank you for a lovely thoughtful comment Francina. I do so much appreciate it
Christine xx
Apr 22, 2012 @ 20:50:35
I agree with several of the comments here and cannot add much except to say that David got it right, you are growing as poet. Your language is strengthening, there is more of the sense that you are working at squeezing out words that do not belong so that the language left glitters like diamonds, and the idea behind the poem is classic: Leaving a Beatles drawing too good to throw away out in the snow, hoping it will disappear into winter. Good work, Christine.
Apr 23, 2012 @ 12:05:14
Thank you so much Thomas.
Your beautiful comment is poetry in itself, “the language left glitters like diamonds” – I will keep those words with me all the time now.
You know how much I welcome and appreciate your feedback and I feel quite humbled to receive this comment from someone whose work I admire so much.
Christine
Apr 29, 2012 @ 15:33:38
Hi Christine,
This is a truly fabulous poem! I’ve enjoyed it greatly on many levels. At first just soaking up your vivid imagery and story. For me the jumper stands out the most. I can very much see that poor jumper in it’s tangled unravelled state. I suppose on a certain level I relate to having done similar in anger and at the end only feeling the worse for it because it doesn’t change the circumstance at all.
Love can be so scarring and I suppose that’s the second level. Those events in life that do scar and leave us permanently changed and no matter what we do it only re-enforces that change.
The last level was my own memory of love gone sour. My ex didn’t return for the engagement ring after a terrible break-up so I ummm..broke it and made sure it could never be worn again…*cheesy grin* …. it was a nice ring too! *LOL*
I very much like your humourous wit at the end of this poem. I think sometimes that’s the only healing balm we can have, to have the last laugh in whatever way we can. 🙂
Thank you very much for sharing this wonderful piece. You really have excelled yourself with this poem!
With much love and
(((BIG WARM HUGS)))
Tikarma
xoxoxo
Jun 18, 2012 @ 18:48:58
I loved this poem…..with me it was a leather inscribed bracelet and a mix tape….but the memories feel the same.
Jun 20, 2012 @ 08:39:37
Thank you very much! Yes, as you say, the memories are the same :):)
Christine
Nov 18, 2012 @ 16:31:55
Well, I think this is a stunning poem, not sure I can explain why. Something about the emotion in it comes across as very real, with no syrup at all! Beautiful! 🙂
Nov 24, 2012 @ 16:49:50
Thank you very much for your comment!
Maybe its because after 40 years he got in touch with me to say sorry! Too late! Surprise, surprise I have moved on!
It did, however, bring back the pain of the situation as though it were yesterday 🙂
Christine