Poetry Train Monday - 153 - On Account of My Loneliness

Perhaps because I've been writing about Scorpius for the Weekend Writer's Retreat, I thought about this piece of journal writing by my grandfather.

It's written on a piece of notepaper and was in amongst a box of photographs. My grandfather was a portrait photographer, so there are loads of pictures, but hardly any memories written out like this. Something to treasure.

In the first shot shown below, he's the teenager in the center of the picture, returned from a day hunting and fishing with friends or cousins, perhaps a mixture of both.


















The second photo shows his parents, along with Grandpa's oldest brother. Grandpa's mother Arthemise died when he was only six, and he was farmed out to relatives following the loss of his mom.













He grew up in an Acadian community in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, so a reference to 'Joseph à Jim' means 'Joseph, son of Jim'.

For today's Poetry Train, I'm returning to the found poetry format which I did all last year. I'm using Grandpa's journal snippet to fashion this poem.


On Account of My Loneliness

After Mother died

After Mother died
Went to live at Joseph à Jim

At Joseph à Jim, after...

Met this woman
Who went to live there
At Joseph à Jim

She lived there
After I left

I left from there
On account of my loneliness

- Charles Doucet

Naquillity says These are the truest treasures. The ones where you can use old photographs like these and write poetry, pulling from the past.

Sheila says Oh so true, the truest treasures. I loved to watch my grandmother's old eyes as she looked at a faded photograph and told a story.

Travis says So often I see a bit of prose and the rhythm of the language just begs to be re-ordered into a poem.