Call it grace, mistake;
twilight happenstance
that winter. A Saturday.
Deep in the muskeg,
bitter, colder than lake
ice, your apple cheeks
burning bright, fevered,
pled for shelter. Warm
hut, rabbit stew, dream
weaver’s healing, honey
tea, sipped tenderness.
Entwined, wrapped in
fur on stones near fire;
moon’s shadow dance.
You lingered ’til Spring.
On wolf winter midnights,
when all is still, I recall.
Because I am familiar with Gordon Lightfoot I tried to write a poem that would honor his music. I was also thinking of one of my favorite songs of his when I wrote it.
Shay is the host of Shay’s Word Garden Word List. Shay says:
What we do here is simple: use at least 3 of the 20 words provided in an original poem. Then just link up and visit others.
apples
axe
bitter
boathouse
colder
daydreams
dewy-eyed
lamp
lingered
mend
mistake
muskeg
outside
rainy
recall
records
saloon
Saturday
twilight
weavers
I’m also linking this up with dVerse’ Poetics, where Sarah is hosting today.
Tao Talk 
Wow cool! I love him. Will save to try to do later…
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I hope you do, Paula.
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I love where you took your love for an artist, such an important love, but too often minimized I think
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Thank you, Bjorn. I love knowing he’s still out on the road playing his songs.
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Oh, that’s beautiful. It’s such an age old story, but you give it a real freshness and beauty here. Love lost…
My husband is a big Gordon Lightfoot fan. He wrote some lovely stuff.
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Thank you, Sarah. He’s one of the greats and still going strong.
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An evocative and beautiful tribute. The wolf winter midnights lend themselves to reflection.
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Thank you, Anna.
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A lovely testament, so nice to do, so valid….and very interesting, too..
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Thank you, Ain. Gord’s one of my favorites.
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The very song that I took “lingered” from! Your poem and the song go together perfectly. Thanks so much for this contribution to the word list–I enjoyed it thoroughly.
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Shay, when I went through the list I tried to figure out which songs they came from 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the poem. Thank you.
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apples “The Pony Man”
axe “I Used To Be A Country Singer”
bitter “If There’s A Reason”
boathouse “Boathouse”
colder “10 Degrees and Getting Colder”
daydreams “Sit Down Young Stranger”
dewy-eyed “Guinivere”
lingered (from the song you used)
muskeg “Canadian Railroad Trilogy”
outside “I’m Not Supposed To Care”
rainy “Rainy Day People”
recall “Carefree Highway”
records “Old Dan’s Records”
Saturday “My Saturday Clothes”
twilight “If There’s A Reason”
weavers “Hangdog Hotel Room”
There were 4 I couldn’t remember off the top of my head.
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saloon “Welcome To Try”
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mistake “Sundown”
Now there’s just two I can’t recall.
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So cool, Shay. Thank you for sharing them. I love that song, “My Saturday Clothes” also. Oh heck, I love them all.
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Love this Lisa, and Gordon Lightfoot!
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So happy on both counts 🙂
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My goodness this is absolutely stellar writing, Lisa 😀 I loved every word!
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Thanks much, Sanaa 🙂
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Lisa, your poem .. is gorgeous.
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🙂 ❤
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I love the warmth and tenderness specially with these lines:
Warm
hut, rabbit stew, dream
weaver’s healing, honey
tea, sipped tenderness.
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❤ Thank you, Grace.
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There was a time when it seemed all I listened to was Gordon Lightfoot. You’ve recreated the evocativeness that I felt in so many of his songs. Very stirring poem, Lisa.
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Sascha, I’m happy on all counts, thank you.
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You’re very welcome. 🙂
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A beautiful and wistful poem, Lisa! I will listen to the song in the morning as the kids are asleep 😅
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Thank you, Ingrid. Sounds like a wonderful time to listen.
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Fabulous writing, Lisa! Now I realize why I’ve loved Gordon’s songs…he’s a poet at heart.
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Lynn, he truly is. And he has such an exquisite command of melody to go with his poetry.
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Definitely! Thanks, I haven’t listened to him for awhile but enjoyed this.
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love the feel of this poem Lisa and love the song! 💖💖
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Cindy glad you like them, thank you 🙂
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Indeed!!
❤️💕
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A whole world to enter into…wonderful, and a fitting tribute as well. (K)
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Thank you, K.
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So much technical content here, in addition just to the lovely sentiment–the jarring line breaks, the relentless shape. A really stellar effort here.
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Alexandra thank you!
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Very nicely done Li
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Thank you 🙂
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My pleasure
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Beautiful poem and great song. Sadly, I’ve only heard a few tunes by Gordon Lightfoot like “If You Could Read My Mind”, “Sundown”, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and “Carefree Highway” – I guess these are the more popular ones!
Lightfoot is now 83 and us still pretty active. In fact, he has a pretty full touring schedule for this year: https://gordonlightfoot.com/GordonLightfootTourSchedule.asp
Quite remarkable!
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At Shay’s Word Garden, she mentions that he’s still going strong. Maybe you can check out some of his tunes on spotify if he’s there? Very much worth the effort.
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Will do. Thanks, Lisa!
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You’re welcome 🙂
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p.s. Thank you for the kind words on the poem.
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Good job Lisa…Gordon would be proud.
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🙂 Thank you, Max.
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❤
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You did a beautiful job of making use of these words, Lisa. A lovely poem. And, I’d forgotten about Gordon Lightfoot. Love him.
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Thank you, Judy. I do also.
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I love how you go from “..colder than lake/ice..” to a scene of such perfect, intense nostalgia and warmth.You have done an excellent job of catching the feel of Lightfoot’s way of telling a story, full of description, detail and personal memories, with a little digression or two, then round to the chorus that won’t leave your head. Nice to see how many share the love of his music with this prompt, too.
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Joy, thank you very much. It’s my Gordon Lightfoot fantasy 🙂
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I always like Gordon Lightfoot, even though I’m not all that familiar with his songs. This is lovely, and your poem goes nicely with it.
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Thanks much, Merril.
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You’re welcome!
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Wonderful. I loved the songs you posted,this guy’s great! 🙂
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Veera, thank you. Glad you enjoyed the music.
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Not much left for me to say, so
Cheers !! Good Job !!
I like your use of the word, “apple”, as an adverb modifying the adjective, “red”.
..
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Thanks much, Jim. Glad you enjoyed the poem.
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What you did with the memory of these great and amazing Lightfoot songs in your poem is wonderful Lisa! A lovely poem and ode to his legacy of music!
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Carrie thank you very much.
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Very well done Lisa! Gordon Lightfoot is one of my favorite as well. He would have been proud! Great song!!
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Thank you, Dwight, for your kind words. I wish Gord could see it. I think he would smile.
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:>)
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Nicely done! You did evoke a Gordon feel there BTW, you should try to check out the Lightfoot bio on … Netflix? (so many darn streaming services it’s hard to keep them straight) . I saw it a few weeks back, really interesting, modern day interview-retrospective with him, and lots of clips looking back at his career… plus interviews with everyone from Sarah McLachlan to Rush to Alex Baldwin (randomly) to a punker from Bad Religion talking about how influential he was to them.
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Thank you, Dave. I will definitely look for it on netflix. I would like to know more about him.
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just beautiful. love the short phrasing, felt so natural and flowing, a single string of narrative from beginning to end and easy to follow and feel… very well written!
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Thanks much, Phillip. Happy you enjoyed the poem.
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How can I not love it, Li! Gord’s my favourite and you did great justice to his songs. Beautiful tribute. ❤️
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Punam, glad you are a fan of his music. Thank you ❤
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