I Cannot Return Comments

Your poem is both beautiful and moving. Perhaps it's for the wish of reliving these simple joys that we need to believe in an afterlife. Your poem is so effective that it makes monstrous the mere thought that heaven might not be real. This poem earns you my respect and admiration, if you didn't already have it.

Adeline, thank you so much for inviting me to read this wonderful poem. It brings back such fond childhood memories. I could relate to almost everything except the Northern Lights. I have never seen the Northern Lights. My mother was born in Canada, but moved to the States when she was ten years old. I'm sure she must have seen them, but I can't remember her ever mentioning them. Hmmmm... sounds like a good title for a poem: Did Mother ever see the Northern Lights?

What a Blessing this poem is, it touches me from the inside out and O yes I remember much of this, though some a little different. I didn’t walk the pole line but I did walk the very dangerous tar bridge and if we slipped and fell, game over. That bridge was the short cut to the circus and we wanted to get there fast. I often question why our parents allowed us to do that but no one was ever hurt. I remember picking strawberries and hanging out in an afternoon at Blueberry hill. Awww and the fabulous thunderstorms with amazing streaks of lightning, had my nose glued to the windowpane. Running barefoot but not in the frost, on wet grass, jumping in the Alamo, a dugout basement filled with snow, we called it the Alamo, and so much more now sits in my memory. You have delighted me and took me back to a time I loved and will never forget. Nostalgia is found in many of my poems and like you, I love to share. Thank you Adeline for the journey back, such a pleasure indeed… Amazing poem…..

Being a Canadian I can relate to all you have written in this wonderful poem. I am living in China now and reading this made me a bit homesich to be honest. Thank you for posting it.

Very vivid colors in this poem; it made me see your childhood quite clearly in my mind, and I was very moved by it.

Great poem! I try to mark my best memories through poems like your poem. Check out: Crazy Prose on a Crazy Night

What a fun full life! Thank you for taking me through this journey. I enjoyed the trip.

in the beginning you write memories i want to share, but at the end you write memories i cannot share. adeline, you shared your memories fine! we may not be able to return physically to our pasts, but, in some cases at least, thank goodness we have our memories. and if you or i someday lose our memories i hope that that is just an illusion that doctors and relatives have about us, and that within us they will still live..................at least the good ones. a great poem; THANKS SO MUCH. bri edwardsj see my previous two comments please

i dared not go on with my comment lest i be unable to send it, as sometimes happens. i don't know WHY it happens but i have suspicions. reading that last sentence, i am reminded that sometimes when i write i use some words etc. that i almost never or never use while speaking to people. i wonder how many others have that experience. may\ be an idea for a poem?

adeline, you commented on my poem....homeward flight. thanks for that. yes i read your bio, some time ago. thanks for that also. when you suggested i read this poem i at first thought you were telling me that you could not return to poemhunter or my poems or something like that. ouch! i did NOT realize that I cannot return was a poem. thank goodness i figured that out and i read it, enjoyed it VERY much and had several parts i especially liked, such as: an hour to lay upsidedown walking the pole line, a day's full walk food of gods on bread at noon i also like that you were not a prisoner-of-rhyme while writing this. i almost always use rhymes, but i've submitted one at least that hardly has any.

i can just picture the icicles.love the poem.

Well, your right Adeline, you cannot return. Memories are wonderful and we would not be without them and they make us who we are, in a sense, but they are hollow shallow ghosts. Time itself beats upon us like never ending waves shifitng the sand constantly. Take the memory of a loved one, its a reminder of what has passed and what cannot be retrieved. Dont get me wrong, I'll take ghosts over nothing. It presses home the need to live now. Jesus was revealing a startling truth when He told us to live for today, live in the now, live in his presence.........Frank

Very vivid imagery I delighted in reading aloud to my partner as we drive to our kayaking adventure. This is my favorite line: The bite of the ax and a hollow ring

Perhaps through our reveries we can.Thank you for taking me back with this nostalgic write, so poignantly rendered-sweet and dear

Adeline, thank you so much for sharing this beautiful poem with us. It brought me back to my childhood, every moment of everyday, of every year. Wonderful times, great memories...I do accept each day I lived, but I dissagree a little bit with you. you say they can return no more, I say, as long as we are able to remember those memories...even the way you describe so wonderfully Raking hay and stacking stooks, Never hurried, but firmly pushed. That means those memories are always with you and you can actually go back and relive those times...Just I did, while reading your poem... Thank you again and thank you for reading and reviewing my poems too

country life well depicted in this poem...quite a youth...quite a time...lots of imagery...i love it.....thanks for sharing such lovely poem NB: thanks for reading my poem

..many very nice images, Adeline..country life of Frost and poets..enjoyed.not to worry, says i..well, at least, every time I approach my guiding spirits, They tell me not to worry ..spiros

a great poem recounting the adventures of your youth. those memories you can not return but you can re-live through this poem. well done. thanks for sharing

Outstanding, I feel so many different words here, this is want a reader wants...

Simply the best..hall of fame