Today, April 1, 2019, marks the beginning of the annual National/Global Poetry Writing Month.  The first gauntlet flung down is to write a poem based on the idea of making something.  A friend suggested parchment.  This became to me how to make the parchment, the memories worth placing on parchment and that how this might be illuminated, bound and kept safe for a family’s memory.

A Parchment To Write On
by Michael Romani

Starting with a rich, dark cup of coffee
You might begin to ponder with me
Just how to create the vellum of yesteryear
Or something quite alike and near
Much like veal only different, calfskin is prepared
From the membrane by which words are ensnared
To tell a story that is warm and inviting
The type of a story worthy of its writing
With the scrape of a crescent shaped knife
Comes the unveiling of a once lived life

Like the drive through Joshua Tree's near 70 miles
Filled with panoramic views and endless smiles
Where a person might climb massive rock formations
And stroll through a cactus garden offering incantations
Where one might marvel at an oasis filled with water
While learning to be a kind and loving father
And a winter's abundant rain sprouts into wildflowers
As springtime arrives with its countless hours
There is the tree likened to arms outstretched in prayer
And the ocotillo's red blooms blossoming everywhere

There in these sparkling visions worth illuminating
Are the veining sheets drying and then waiting
Writing now is easier than the lines and columns
That only yesterday required the quire's negotiated slaloms
And the words chosen with warmth and simplicity
Offer up their very best in practiced complicity
Summarized within the bindings of embellished gilt
Where travels told offer their charm and are felt
The stability of well kept memories preserve against humidity
And in so doing become a family's cherished memory

(c) April 1, 2019  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved