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There's a Train a-Comin: Familiar Sounds

10/19/2017

10 Comments

 
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Welcome, friends! Thank you for joining me here on the ridge this week. for more Poetry Friday fun, visit Leigh Ann at her space A Day in the Life.

​I have been relying on my magnet topics for writing starters lately. Trains are certainly a magnet topic for me that I write about often in my notebook. I can always find new ways to write about them.

There's just something about a train lumbering down a track, far off in the distance, that makes me pause in my busy track of life. It seems I move full speed ahead these days, and yet somehow, a familiar sound will blow the horn in my head. It's the horn that says, "Stop, slow down, let out the steam." I need to hear that, and when I do, I feel safe. So safe that I am eager to step up on the platform and board the train, wherever it may be going. The destination becomes very unimportant. What matters is that the train's familiar sound was enough to slow me down and pick me back up. 
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Listen to my poem:

Invitation to Write:

Often a familiar sound can slow us down and make us think about why it's so easy to recognize. It could be a memory from our childhood or something we hear everyday at school, work, or at home. What are the sounds that you are most familiar with. Make a list in your notebook. Think about how these sounds make you feel or what they remind you of. Writing about a sound we connect with can lead us down all kinds of writing tracks. 
10 Comments
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater link
10/20/2017 08:53:33 am

"that rattle-trap along the track"

There is something so haunting and magical about trains. I love this line and the way you play with sounds in this one. In our village place, we hear trains too...sometimes we even feel them.

Happy Poetry Friday! xx

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Kay Jernigan McGriff link
10/20/2017 10:52:02 am

I, too, love the sound of trains. We live just near enough to tracks that I can hear the whistle as the trains go by, but far enough away that we don't shake along with them. I enjoyed the sounds of your poem that mimic that of the train.

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Linda Mitchell link
10/20/2017 02:45:06 pm

Keisha, I read this post last night and thought i commented...I must not have. But, I came back to it today because the idea of a train calling to it's listeners really has a hold on me. I grew up with trains and live with them now. I've stopped listening as they are part of the backbeat of life. But, I am going to spend some time with my train thoughts and sounds. Thank you for the invitation.

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Linda Baie link
10/20/2017 06:11:52 pm

My father-in-law was a train engineer & in the early part of our marriage, my husband & I got to take a few rides with him. I'm done a few more, and as you say, there is magic in those machines and in their whistle. I can still hear one from far away here in Denver, makes me want to have it "come round again" "to rise" and get going! Thanks, Kiesha.

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Mary Lee Hahn
10/21/2017 04:09:37 am

We live a block and a half from train tracks. The whistles are sometimes alluring, sometimes annoying. The trains pounding the tracks rattle our windows and disrupt our travels. And I love them.

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Brenda link
10/21/2017 05:56:13 am

I love that haunting that takes place at night: the train whistle I can't hear during the day.

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Leigh Anne Eck link
10/21/2017 12:23:47 pm

We live on top of a hill and the sound of the trains seem to float up to us. I wrote a poem about the mourning sound of the train. There is just something about that slow, wailing sound. Love your invite to write about sounds because they do spark memories.

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Tabatha
10/22/2017 07:17:00 am

I like the contrast of the narrator in bed, safe and sound, and the mysterious train, going who-knows-where.

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Carol Varsalona link
10/23/2017 06:33:28 am

This line is a keeper, Kiesah: "that rattle-trap along the track." I think children will love how you play with the different sounds in this poem.

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Michelle Kogan link
10/25/2017 10:58:47 pm

Thanks for slowing us down with your train poem Kiesha. I like the transformation you created, starting louder and slowing, softening the sound as it picks you up, thanks!

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    Welcome! I'm Kiesha Shepard, and I have a love for writing and the teaching of writing. Whispers From the Ridge is a place where I can share my words and ideas for teaching writing. It's also a place for you to find inspiration for writing the words inside of you. I invite you into my world of writing as I capture the whispers from the ridge.

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