Tag Archives: Dottie

Dottie Shares

Posted on July 6, 2016 | Comments Off on Dottie Shares

ROCKPORT JULY 1, by Dottie Smith Mann

Slow sad tears of resignation

Once and again and again the solitaire reminds me
Doing the right thing does not always get a good result
Sometimes the game is lost even when it begins well
And there are good moments
But finally
“There are no more valid moves.”

The eight year old within cries softly
“But I did the right things, why can’t I win?
I love him so, we play so well together, he makes me laugh.”

I hold  her in my soft soft arms and kiss her soggy face.
We look to the blue June sky, the perfect Rockport day,
And vow to make it ours… All the joy and rapture
All the beauty of sea and sky and summer flowers
All that is more incredibly wonderful
Because it will not last.

I take her hand and walk the Lane eastward
Toward the sea.

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Dottie’s Valentine Letter

Posted on February 18, 2016 | Comments Off on Dottie’s Valentine Letter

TO MY VALENTINES

Geoff and Dave enjoy the barbecue

Sons Geoff and Dave enjoy the barbecue

You know who you are, all the lovely loved ones in my life, and today is my day to celebrate you before the New Year gets any older! Sending cards at the traditional time continues to be an elusive, though admirable, goal; doesn’t stop me from doing what I can when I can. So I hope there is much joy in your lives, as a balance to the personal and world wide challenges we all face. It would be easy to 

Geoff and Susan prepare Christmas dinner for the granddogs

Geoff and daughter Susan prepare Christmas dinner for the granddogs

give up on the crazy old world we live in, but I am heartened by a hymn I know: “Ours is no caravan of despair, come, yet again, come.”

It is almost four years since E.D. died, and thoughts of you still sustain me. As do visits.   The Wilsons in MI, the Martins in NY, Ann and Neil in MA and Susan, Dave’s family and Elizabeth in NC all welcomed me for the hot months I avoid here in Tampa. And in the winter I look forward to reciprocating.

 

Click on thumbnails below to enlarge, then click the “close button (x)” to see the caption.

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Posted in Personal Stories

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Dottie’s Journey

Posted on July 22, 2013 | Comments Off on Dottie’s Journey

Dottie Smith Mann, on July 12, sent this to the email chat group, and I asked if I could post it here.  Thanks, Dottie, for sharing this.

“Yesterday I took ownership of E.D.’s IMac computer, the bigscreen one he bought not long after we moved to Ormond. It felt momentous to me, to change over name and passwords, but most of all to go thru all the files in documents, desktop and downloads that he had placed there over the years.  I could see him sitting in his corner of our office for so many hours but I didn’t know until yesterday the details of what he was doing.  So orderly.  So varied in interests.  So serious one time as he organized finances or UU projects, so funny and quirky the next collecting jokes, music, poems.  At the kind suggestion of an Apple guy, I made three files, Keep, Maybe and Trash.  Then for two hours I revisited E.D.’s occupations, preoccupations, fascinations, impulses and whimsies.  It was sad, hard, funny, surprising.  Significant.  Three different guys from the Genius Bar kept me going,

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Posted in Sharing "Stuff"

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Poem

Posted on July 22, 2013 | Comments Off on Poem

LATE AFTERNOON, by Dottie Smith Mann

This is where I am in my life…
the late afternoon
so full of beauty it cracks my heart.
A sharply defined beauty
nothing fuzzy about it
three dimensioned
the up close and the far away clearly etched
seen by the light of a strong but waning sun.

The evening will come
Let evening come, the poet said.

Not yet though
Let me have the flickering shadows
the wind tossed trees
the soft blue skies
the brllliant sun almost at eye level.
Let me have the distant sounds of a small plane
the workmen down the lane almost done for the week.

Let me have the sun on teak tables and leather chairs
my husband resting upstairs
the shining maple floor
the reflected light on Aunt Anne’s bird sculpture
reminding me of a window on Eden Road looking out to sea.

Oh it cracks my heart and from that space
I feel a current come
A river of joy and love and gratitude
That I am here
in the late afternoon
before the night.

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Posted in Literary

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Poem

Posted on July 22, 2013 | Comments Off on Poem
Cardinal at My Window, by Dottie Smith Mann
 
Everyday he attacks his reflection in the glass
For hours he pecks, pecks, pecks, pecks.
I am saddened by the futility.
And yet perhaps it is just what he needs
Sharpens his beak.  Dulls his beak.
Gets exercise.  Improves his eyesight.
Avoids harmful aggression with other birds.
Stays away from the nest where a brooding female
has no room, or patience, for him.
 
He is not me
Sadness about futility is my emotional reality, not his.
Do I fear that I am banging my head against an uncaring reflective wall?
Does it sadden me that I might be without insight into the reality of my condition?
Does it pain me to hear his clicking metronome of dailiness
while I listen to my heartbeat
and my husband’s
waiting to hear it stop.
 

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