tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post4222551482874773505..comments2024-01-20T06:51:58.729-08:00Comments on Echoes of Tattered Tongues: Memory Unfolded: Remembering My MomJohn Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-84552635857347332472016-05-09T10:12:01.000-07:002016-05-09T10:12:01.000-07:00Dear John, Yesterday I read your Mother's Day ...Dear John, Yesterday I read your Mother's Day poem, which in a way surprised me, because my first introduction to your parents had been a harsh depiction. Then I came here, and contemplated the order of writing and reading, writing and reading, rereading and the power of not rewriting or rather altering that which conveyed true feeling, but writing more at different stages, grabbing hold of words that speak the truth, words that sustain, words that show the alteration of sentiment, not because feelings change, but because our perception changes over time. What was written exists to acknowledge and be able to share. What do you write first, what do you share first, when opinions are formed by the first words uttered and heard? There's such gregariousness in your sharing the sum total, the bare boned honesty and then some. Thank you, thank you. You are an inspiration.Judith van Praaghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12113677919729425142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-29685702839532392882013-01-15T09:11:22.406-08:002013-01-15T09:11:22.406-08:00Here's a post from Margie Skelly:
Your tribut...Here's a post from Margie Skelly:<br /><br />Your tribute to your mother makes her a very special person, and I like the honesty in your writing. That she turned into a cold and unfeeling person was one hundred precent inevitable. How could it have been otherwise? Still, as her child, that is very hard to take. And yes, if anybody is now in a beautiful place, it would surely be your mother! Margie Skelly<br />John Guzlowskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-54865769958496826892013-01-15T05:52:20.966-08:002013-01-15T05:52:20.966-08:00Thanks John, for your honesty, authenticity and th...Thanks John, for your honesty, authenticity and the quality of your writing in this most difficult of subjects.<br />My mum and dad died only two and three months ago respectively so what you had to write is raw to me and I benefit from your words.<br />My other was Scottish, never suffered in the way your mum did, and was warm and gentle.<br />Dad as you know, was in the gulag - born not far from Lwow as your mum was. He was hard too, until his strokes gave him ten last years of increasing gentleness. Not often strokes give such gifts but I made the most of that time to form a loving bond between us. I was lucky.<br />Your work penetrates to the core, to the heart. Keep going. It makes a difference somewhere deep inside the hearts of people you have never met. That's a gift, a quality of grace, a reason for being.Martin Stepeknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-76879468137137874072013-01-14T16:58:50.433-08:002013-01-14T16:58:50.433-08:00Every time I read something you wrote about your p...Every time I read something you wrote about your parents, I want to cry. Not in a bad way, but it makes me terribly sad. “And the truth here was that her experiences and her suffering made her hard and made her cold.”Urkathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17086121300436012432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-42388987117305813702013-01-14T09:24:19.924-08:002013-01-14T09:24:19.924-08:00John, moving memorial to your mother. I recognize...John, moving memorial to your mother. I recognize her. I had a mother like her, though mine was born in Detroit, she suffered from hard work and worse ignominies. Christina Pacosz Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-73812284987081806122013-01-14T09:07:56.759-08:002013-01-14T09:07:56.759-08:00This was beautiful what you wrote Father Bob so it...This was beautiful what you wrote Father Bob so it would help him eulogize her. The strength you received from both your parents is amazing and writing about them is something everyone should read because the world forgets how things were in WW11 and even what is happening now in the world with so many genocides/atrocities. You think the world would have learned a lesson by now. I loved the poem you wrote for her too. Thank you for sharing and I am sorry for your loss on this 7 year anniversary of her death. Much love to you John and prayers. Your Mom is at peace and I know she is in a beautiful place.Gloria Mindockhttp://www.cervenabarvapress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-55979465567635509282013-01-14T06:18:33.499-08:002013-01-14T06:18:33.499-08:00Thanks John the Poet for that loving memorial of y...Thanks John the Poet for that loving memorial of your mother. And I am glad you make it clear that experiences such as those she went through do not tend to be ennobling. If they were, there might be something to be said for them - but they aren't, and there isn't.<br /><br />My father was a country boy too - his childhood playgrounds were the fields and forests of Belarus. But then the wars began.<br /><br />I have read your poem before - think I have it in here on my poetry bookshelf. And, once again, I want to say how powerful I find it. <br /><br />Your mother learnt, correctly, that the world is a broken place. <br /><br />It is. It should have been paradise - and the beauty all around us gives a witness of that - but the serpent is still in the garden.<br /><br />When your mother wakes from the sleep of death, she will wake up into a world so different from the one she knew - a world which has become the paradise it was always meant to be - a world ruled by the law of loving-kindness. <br /><br /><br />Sue Knight's Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12597157298218651144noreply@blogger.com