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Gypsy
by Glenn CurrierShe is like an old gypsy
with bangles clanking and dangling
on her ample limbs.
She is clothed in color and fabric
crafted by hands from many lands.
She smells of meals and tropics
beads of brown and black
woven in her hair
with blooms of pilgrims
shes known and taught
in the decades she traveled
into our minds and hearts.
Ive know this gypsy
heard her fluted melody
danced to her rhythms
seen in her gaze
the wisdom of the ages
felt the heat and rebuke
issued from this mother
who has loved her son
with a heart that pumps
with the lessons of a life.
I leave her nine story parlor
with a fortune of memories
of friends and grins
and dappled days
semesters of lectures
grades and teaching
and 35 years of sowing and reaping. 09/01/2008 Author's Note: I wrote this poem and read it upon the occasion of a retirement reception for me and four of my colleagues at El Centro College. I wanted to write a poem that captured both El Centro -- a downtown college with a wonderfully diverse student body and staff -- and my relationship to it. Today, September 1, 2008, is the official FIRST DAY!!! of my retirement. Appropo is the writing and posting of the first poem of my retirement, "Explorer," because I had said that one of the things I want to do in retirement is to write and read a lot more poetry. I pray that this be a new beginning for me.
Posted on 09/01/2008
Copyright © 2025 Glenn Currier
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Charles E Minshall on 09/01/08 at 05:02 PM Congratulations on your retirement Glenn. I look
forward to more of your writings...CharMin |
| Posted by Charlie Morgan on 09/01/08 at 06:08 PM ...glenn, two things[at least] thing one[ala Papa], is i'm past envy, i've jumped on the fast train of jealous! thing two, a lovely caricature o' our stomptin' grounds for nigh on eons, and it is all that and actually the infusion of dynamics between students/staff etc. for decades, it's hard to call it anything and yet me tam's tipped to you for including in a pome, lovely, lovely...no brick and mortar, no old downton Sanger-Harris selling clothes buuut a college [since '65] and instead selling futures, you're still a great teacher, one of the caringest i ever known...i bow...friend for life, and the next one too...charlie |
| Posted by Anne Engelen on 09/01/08 at 06:11 PM Happy retirement. May it be as colourful as the life before it! |
| Posted by Alison McKenzie on 09/01/08 at 07:54 PM Wow. Quite the interesting allegory. Only, this gypsy doesn't travel, the students do. Nice! |
| Posted by Quentin S Clingerman on 09/01/08 at 08:05 PM A well deserved tribute and recognition in this warm affectionate poem.
Congratulations on retirement. Welcome! It is wonderful! |
| Posted by Kristina Woodhill on 09/02/08 at 02:57 AM Wow! Congratulations on your retirement! Enjoy every minute. This is a great poem. "I leave her nine story parlor
with a fortune of memories" - my fav lines, although the images throughout are really fine.
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