He said I was ‘snippy’. I was taken aback, but he was right, of course. He knows me better than I know myself. I thought about it. I was feeling down in the dumps and I knew I was being moody, irritable and impatient. Things were getting me down. I was easily upset and filled with a sadness that I couldn’t shake off. I wanted things that I couldn’t have; my nanna, my mum, my sense of smell so I could remind myself of her Estee Lauder fragrance; and normal eyesight. My vision is very frustrating sometimes – most of the time. The melancholy has eased off for now, but it will be back. I can rely on my husband to tell me I’m ‘snippy’ if I’m not aware.
It is the statins. I blame everything on the statins from my mood to my physical aches and pains and fatigue. Before I was prescribed, I blamed everything on the menopause. I’m a bit senior to carry that off convincingly, so the statins are the culprit.
Recently, when window-shopping round various jewellers in town looking for something special for my sister, I saw a pre-loved ring exactly like the one I was stupid enough to lose in 1971, an inexpensive dress ring of sentimental value, given to me by an aunt. I’d forgotten all about it for most of the last fifty-odd years, but seeing it brought back memories and made me feel sad to have been so careless in my teens. I know exactly where I lost it and at the time I’d retraced my steps over and over again and searched as thoroughly as I could. I concluded that someone must have found it. This can’t possibly be the same ring, but it filled me with nostalgia, so much that I might buy it as a replacement.
I was listening to ‘A Question of Balance’ – The Moody Blues, this morning, and in particular Mike Pinder’s ‘Melancholy Man’. It’s a great song. Help yourself on YouTube.
I looked to my beloved Brontes for a ‘melancholy’ poem and decided that any poem by any one of them would be suitable and I found that quite sad. The lives they had in the parsonage overlooking the church and the graveyard, the loss of their mother and older siblings, then the loss of each other is reflected in their poems. The troubled Branwell the most melancholy, fighting his demons.
I chose a poem I wrote in memory of our nephew, David. Today marks fourteen years since he was murdered.
Rondeau In memory of David
Think happy thoughts and always smile.
This might not be the hardest mile
To walk on our journey of life,
But just another time of strife;
So stop and rest here for a while.
Remember days of carefree style
Before the death, before the trial;
Before the bastard with the knife…
Think happy thoughts,
And not of the murder so vile
And let nothing spoil or defile
The joyful mem’ries of his life,
His little girl, bewildered wife.
Hold still and wait here for a while,
Think happy thoughts.
PMW 2009
Robert Peston will lift my spirits. I'm reading one of his books, 'Whistleblower'.
Thanks for reading, Pam x
5 comments:
This was so powerful and left me feeling sad for you. What an awful thing to happen to someone you loved. It's an affecting poem.
I dream of having someone to tell me when I'm snippy (LOL). This was such an honest post. Getting old is reason enough for melancholy, isn't it. I loved your poem, don't know what a rondeau is but it's great to have created something so powerful out of a tragedy.
'Snippy' - what a great word for irritable. Research into the four humours (for my own Melancholy blog) would link that to yellow bile and a fiery personality! As you say, much more likely to be a side-effect of medication.
This was disarmingly forthright Pam, (powerful as someone else noted) and you've got my sympathy for your periods of melancholy. The joys of ageing!
It was shocking to read that you'd lost a nephew in this way and your bittersweet poem is an extraordinary and moving work.
Goodness! I feel for you.
How on earth could you remember the shape etc of the ring from 1971.
The news of the murder of your nephew was a real shock and the poem is a fitting tribute.
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