After an All-night Rain

(Remembering Dante)

Do not forget to mark my passage

Watch as I move through tall grass and honeysuckle vines

Breathe, breathe as you pass through the woods.

Feel the air that thickens with heavy rains

Squat low and search for broad plants under sheltering trees

Do not forget to mark my passage.

Reach out, mingle the poison ivy vines

with the strong-scented honeysuckle tangles

Breathe, breathe as you pass through the woods.

Trace  the withering crimson tips of  white flowers

on the hardened muddy knoll

Do not forget to mark my passage.

Move your feet quietly this morning

past  the  sleeping dogs on the hillside

Breathe, breathe as you pass through the woods.

Listen as a small dog barks twice

in the darkened room where my mother turns in her sleep

Do not forget to mark my passage.

Breathe, breathe as you pass through the woods.

©Lynda McKinney Lambert, 2000, 2022.All Rights Reserved World wide.

I appreciate that you might share my poem but I ask that you remember to include my copyright information.  I appreciate your courtesy in sharing my work.

The Backstory

I wrote this poem twenty-two years ago.

It has appeared in publications many times.

For years, my mother and I walked every morning together. In the poem, it is summertime.

We would leave about 5:30 am because we wanted to get in our walk and be back home by 7 am.  Pennsylvania is hot and humid in the summertime, and by 7 am the sun is up high and the morning is already hot. Our 3 mile walk took us along a creek and through a wooded area. As we walked together we chatted about everything imaginable.  I also was gathering images in my mind – trying to remember the details of our journey so that I could come home and write this poem. As I read the poem at this time, many years have passed My mother died in March 2007. But, when I read the poem, each time, I am on that same country road and I am experiencing the early morning sights, sounds, movement and smells of that day. When I read this poem, I am with my mother again as we try to walk quietly so we don’t wake up the sleeping dog on the hillside.  We take a deep breath to smell the fragrance of the honeysuckle vines. Once the sun comes up, it will be gone.

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Published:

After an All-Night Rain:  Remembering Dante (2000)

          _

_Taproot Literary Review – Sassifrass Edition #14

Summer 2001 Volume 4

ISBN1-890269-11-5

_Lambert,Lynda.Concerti: Psalms for the Pilgrimage, Kota Press, 2002.

ISBN 1-929359-18-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2002112554

_Kudzu Monthly, e-zine, April 2003.

_Indiana Voice Journal, Summer Issue, June 10, 2017. Issue #35

_NatureWriting Literary Magazine, June 8, 201

__Lambert, Lynda McKinney. Star Signs: New and Selected Poems, July 15,2019

 __The Avocet, Print Edition, Summer 2019

_Lambert, Lynda McKinney. Songs for the Pilgrimage, 2021.

_Lambert, Lynda. Walking by Inner Vision, From the Professor’s Journal, August 22, 2022.

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BONUS:

Note from a reader of my poem in The Avocet:

 

Lynda,

Thanks so much for sharing your poem, After an All-night Rain (Remembering Dante) in the Summer edition of The Avocet.  I really appreciate poems that meld an immediate experience into a classical reference and do it seamlessly, and you succeeded in this poem.  You gave the experience a depth that really enhances it each time it is read – just the kind of poem I enjoy.  Please keep writing and sharing your work!

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Thanks, Again,

 

– Greg Gregory

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©Lynda McKinney Lambert, 2022. All rights reserved.

You are welcome to share this article but please remember to include the copyright information.

I appreciate your courtesy.

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