Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Reunion Bliss

The last fling with summer pastimes has come and gone. Labor Day weekend often heralds last minute camping trips, hurried visits to local theme parks, and possibly a family reunion of sorts. With that in mind, I will now share a poem I wrote years ago concernng the joy of reunions.

Reunion Bliss

It's reunion time---the whole family rejoices,
Except for my husband, it's not one of his choices.
He seems to feel that they ruin the summer
And when the invitations come, he says it's a bummer!

"If I want to see someone, I'll go to their house,
"I don't like to forced!" He's such a fun spouse.
And when the grand day arrives, how I've sweated and slaved,
Almost as much as he's ranted and raved:

"I am not going! Did you hear me? I'm not!
"I cannot be bribed, nor can I be bought!"
Ignoring his "growl" I just load the car
And hand him the keys, with the door left ajar.

He grudgingly follows, complaining all the way,
Lest I assume he might enjoy the blessed day.
"This is ridiculous, I don't know anyone,"
"I'll sit and waste time, and I'll never have fun."

Violins seem to play as he shares his sad tale,
Even our boys seem impressed with his wail.
Soon we arrive, the boys and food are unloaded,
Relatives approach---has my husband exploded?

Much to my amazement, as it happens each year,
He talks to these people as if they were dear.
"Why Uncle Henry, is it really you?"
"Cousin Leroy, stop by next time through!"

And so it goes, on and on---
Until evening descends and most everyone's gone.
We load up the car and as we pull out leave,
My husband says something I have yet to believe:

"That was really fun! We'll have to come next year!"
There's a tiny little part of me that can't believe he's sincere.
If only I could capture those precious words on tape,
We'd be in terrific reunion-going shape!


Cheri J. Crane
1991

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Cheri,

I love your sense of humor and your style of poetry. Dare I hope one of the books of yours that's been published was a book of poetry. If not, have you considered it? I have a great artist I can put you in touch to make it really fun. I'd be the first to buy it!

Cheri J. Crane said...

Candace, thank you for your continued encouragement. =) At the moment, Covenant is considering the feasibility of publishing a book of humorous poems. Some of mine are under consideration. I'm not sure if anything will come of it, if nothing does---I will consider your idea.

I belong to a local poetry guild---we meet together once a month to share the poems we've written, etc. It's a good incentive to keep writing this sort of thing.

Cheri J. Crane said...

By the way, I forgot to add that my published books to this point in time are novels. Some of them contains bits and pieces of my lyrics and poetry---as they fit the storylines, but that's it so far.

My second novel, "The Fine Print," is full of humor. Written more for adults (My other books target teens, although I've been told that all ages seem to enjoy them)it features a spunky Type 1 diabetic and some of her adventures. (Some friends and family members seem to think the main character, Teri, is based on me. Interesting.)

"The Fine Print," is no longer in print, but you can find copies of it in some libraries, depending on the location, and online at sites like E-Bay, and Amazon.com, though my personal favorite is www.abebooks.com because you can get better deals. ;)

Unknown said...

Oh, I love Abebooks.com. I use that site all the time.

Thanks for the info, I'll see what I can find. Just from reading your poetry I want to dive into your books. And I hope Covenant does publish the book of poetry. It would be wonderful!

In the meantime:

I posted this on my blog today:

"Okay, I'll admit it. Anne Bradshaw over at Not Entirely British did a really good thing and I am shamelessly borrowing from her idea of spotlighting the most amazing youth in the world. I think it is incredible what she has done and the youth that are the finalists in her contest are truly amazing. If you haven't gone to her blog yet, read about them and vote, you're going to want to do that as soon as you're done reading mine, submitting a nomination and generally recognizing that I'm the greatest blogger to ever walk the earth . . . all right, all right, you don't have to do that last part. As long as it exists in my mind I'm okay with that.

Announcing the Best Husband in the World Contest -- please check out my blog today."

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, right?

Cheri J. Crane said...

What a novel idea. =)It sounds like a wonderful contest.

Unknown said...

I'm hoping the word spreads across the world and I am inundated with nominations of marvelous men. Now, how do I spread the word across the world? I've already had one nomination from the Netherlands.

Anonymous said...

Cheri,
Your poetry is fantastic!
Thank you for e-mailing me your blog address.
Unfortunately, I don't have a blog page, but I think they are a really great way of keeping in touch.

Breanna Luker

Cheri J. Crane said...

Candace: It's amazing how fast word can spread via the internet. =) And you already had someone respond from the Netherlands? Way cool. I'll have to get my act together and submit a nomination.

Breeanna, I'm glad you're enjoying the poetry. If you're interested in putting together a blog of your own, they're really not that complicated. Go up to the top of my blog page to where it invites you to sign in---click on it and follow the instructions that will appear on the dashboard page. If your silly aunt Cheri can figure it out, you can. ;) Go for it, I think you'd enjoy putting one together---just let me know when it's up and running and I'll link it to mine. You can share pictures, family adventures, etc. Some of our relatives here in Bennington put one together so we could keep track of how Marty Baker's cancer surgery went. (You can see it at: www.martysbakersdozen.blogspot.com)