Too Long: Poems with an echo response

Poetry Friday is a dream this week! Be sure to visit Brenda at her fairyland space, Friendly Fairy Tales.

Dear friends, this week I have been thinking about how important it is to return to the people, places, and things we love. I do this a lot, especially when I start realizing how much I have missed. One evening, I was walking out in my yard by the old elm tree, and I suddenly noticed how much had changed. While I was off living in my own world, the natural world I love was changing and living its life as well. As I stood there gazing up at the branches, I was sad that I had passed by so many times without stopping. I missed the birds. I missed the trees. I missed the spiders and the crickets. So I imagined that they could hear me and that we could talk to each other. This poem is that conversation. I talked to my dear friends, and they answered, like a soft echo of the breeze through the trees.

The old elm tree in my yard I call the "Dragonfly Tree." photo by Kiesha Shepard

Too Long
 
I miss the elm.
I miss the spider.
 
Too long, too long                  
                       you have passed us by.
 
I miss the wren.
I miss the cricket.
 
Too long, too long
                       you have passed us by.
 
Too long, too long
I have passed you by,
dear earthly friends.
 
© Kiesha Shepard
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Invitation to Write:

Try reading this poem with a friend. Partner A reads the narrator's statements. Partner B reads the nature's response echo in italics. Then switch. Try adding stanzas and response lines to my poem if you like, or better yet, have fun experimenting with your own call and response type poems.!