I recently read somewhere that students hate the word “prompt” as it is used for daily journaling. I don’t agree. A prompt for me can be the fuel I need to get a Poetry Friday post up.
I subscribe to Poets & Writers The Time is Now. I don’t respond every week. But this week the prompt reminded me of a poem I wrote a few years ago when I was considering a memoir in verse. It’s still sitting in my documents waiting, potential for something bigger, maybe. The prompt asked me to write a poem using a favorite song as a title and writing the memory that it brought forth.
In my senior year of high school, our house in Jackson, Mississippi was flooded 5 feet by the overflowing Pearl River. It was a time of great loss as well as many blessings and lessons about loss. The first album I bought after the flood was James Taylor’s Flag.
My memory of that time has aged along with me. My brother and I are 15 months apart. I recall feeling a growing closeness to him that I hadn’t felt before. We were in this tragedy together. Currently as we face the fading memory of our mother, we are again dealing with a tragedy together. And it may help the meaning of the poem for you to know that he is a musician who has been holding a real microphone for 40 years.
Up on the Roof
Across town
in South Jackson
because North Jackson
was under water, James Taylor
sang on the brand-new record player
we bought with the Red Cross money.Listening, I imagined stairs to a roof,
romantic evening sky, holding
hands with a boy
I didn’t feel safe with,
daring to kiss in the dark.Instead, my brother pulled me back
(c) Margaret Simon
to dance in PJs across floor mattresses.
With no one watching,
he held a shoe
for a microphone.
Reflections on the Teche 
What a snapshot! What a reverberation of your sibling history. What luck to have a sibling who grounds you and protects you with music and dance.
What a dear memory, Margaret. Our siblings, this time your brother, like no other, hold us close from childhood to adult. You’ve made a sad time into one that had goodness, too. Funny, but I wrote about my brother today, too, and his wife, a big anniversary!
Margaret, I love your poem of sweetness and connection in the midst of recovery from such painful loss. James Taylor “assisted me” every afternoon during our son’s infancy when, for no apparent reason at all, he began inconsolable crying around 3 in the afternoon. I held him and danced around with him, singing “Sweet Baby James”. It comforted me and reminded me of the great gift of having a child—it didn’t do much for the crying, which stopped in its own sweet time.
Carol, I love that I conjured that memory of a tough time made easier by music, and especially James Taylor.
I have been following you for several years. Love what you do. Today, I am blown away with your piece. I love the turn in the poem. The image of your brother with the shoe is awesome!
Jo Taylor in Georgia
Sent from Mailhttps://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986 for Windows
Such a sweet poem, Margaret. How lovely that you were able to find such warmth in that moment and hold on to the memory.
Love this memory–the detail of the shoe as microphone brings me into the scene. And so nice to have a close sibling to lean on then and now.
And thank you for the James Taylor–a favorite that I am singing now!
Great prompt and poem you created capturing this “flood” of emotions. I knew the Drifters version of Up on a Roof but not James Taylor’s, thanks for sharing all Margaret!
I love the tension in this poem between your romantic imaginings and the reality of the moment with your brother–and all set against a backdrop of recent loss. Such a tender memory and poem!
Margaret, your poem is a lovely remembrance of a time of tragedy that sings of sibling bonding. Music has a lasting appeal and taps all sorts of memories. I like the move you made in your poem from an imaginative stance to a happy real one. May you and your brother face your new tragedy with a lifting of music and prayer.
What a blessing this prompt is for us, your readers, Margaret. And how cool that you were there when your brother sang into a shoe, knowing he’d eventually hold a ‘real microphone’. Love me some James Taylor. 🙂
A sweet tribute to sibling connection. I’m sorry about your mum’s memory *hug*
A lovely memory Margaret. I love how it flows. I agree with your stance on the word prompt. It helps me, often, to have one in order to get the juices flowing! Thanks!
One of my all-time favorite songs and dancing is always involved! Beautiful memory of a brother’s love, simply being present.
Wonderful memory and poem. I was lucky to be blessed with a brother who stayed my friend throughout our lives. I miss him every day. Hugs to you during this challenging time.
Grateful for a prompt that fueled your writing.
Beautiful, Margaret. Such a lovely sibling connection amid that hard, hard time. I was at college and my parents called me early on a Sunday morning to tell me what was happening. The water came up to inches from their patio before the river crested. So sorry to hear about your mother’s decline.
The flood must have been horrible, but you were fortunate to have your brother. The memories of your brother remind me of mine, who is gone, but was just a year older and a connection I can’t image being without.