The Way It Used To Be



Just around the corner
is a little white house
Inside but usually outside
a white haired lady putters about

Her blue eyes twinkle
and her pink lips smile
She always ask everyone
if you can stay a while

Her house is a hodgepodge
of lovingly crafted things
From a fence made of bottles
to an old porch swing

The trees in her yard
so elegant and strong
Planted long ago now
each has its own story song

If you listen well
and if you listen hard
You can hear their whispered tales
across her wide windswept yard

Wind chimes tinkle
with happy jubilee
While you sit a while
and hear of how it used to be

About this poem

This poem was written about a lovely neighbor that lives up and around the corner from me, here in Southport, NC.

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Written on June 08, 2024

Submitted by ami.oferris on June 10, 2024

42 sec read
41

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXX ABXB XXXX CDXD XCXC AEBE
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 621
Words 140
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

 · 1958 · Illinois

Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris lives in Southport, NC. She is a published poet in Cameron Art Museum’s Writers Respond to Art Program and awarded the Certificate of Completion for completing the 2021 - 24 Hour Poetry Marathon. Her poem Wheels was chosen and published in the 2021 - 24 Hour Poetry Marathon Anthology. Her poem The Date has been chosen for publication in the 2022 - 24 Hour Poetry Marathon Anthology. She is a published author in Whisper’s & Echoes, an on-line literary magazine and in 50 Give or Take by Vine Leaves Press for her 50 word stories, Love, The Wedding and The Sleep Doctor. Also in Visual Verse with her poem Mother Earth. Ami is honored to have been published in Spillwords for her poem concerning current events, I Am Not A Man. Ami writes flash fiction, short stories, creative non-fiction and fiction as well as poetry. Her short story, Conversations With My Neighbor is published in Trouble, by Daniel Boone Publishing. Ami received Honorable Mention in Tales from the Moonlit Path 2021 their Halloween Issue, Abandoned Places Halloween Challenge, for her short story, Abandoned Memories. She has been published in Whispers and Echoes as follows - Rat-a-Tat-Tat-Tat - Wednesday 4th May 2022 Early Tulips - Wednesday 11th May 2022 Flying High - Wednesday 18th May 2022 She is currently working on her first action/adventure/paranormal romance novel. Ami is a member of NCWN (North Carolina Writer’s Network) and WFWN (Women’s Fiction Writer’s Network). She is a contributing member of several local writers groups including The Wilmington Write To Publish Group, Heron Clan Poetry, Women Writer’s Group and Living Poetry. Ami is known to her closest friends and relatives as Gypsie. more…

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1 Comment
  • Adroity
    Nice poem that's much enjoyed
    LikeReply1 month ago

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"The Way It Used To Be" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Nov. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/192317/the-way-it-used-to-be>.

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