With pen in hand, words in my head
I scribe to you a note of love
Tomorrow I’ll post it, lick the stamp first
Hoping you can read it in a week or two.
In the meantime the newspaper arrives
A day old as the old coach is slow
It’s a good days ride into town.
Most of our news is hearsay now days.
In a few years they think we’ll have the phone
Does that mean I call you, I ask myself?
I guess letters will become a thing of the past.
The electric is now around the town
There’s even a light outside the town hall.
But not way out here we’re miles from town
For us it’s sunup to sundown
Candles and a lamp if we ration the kero.
Mum has a few books she reads at night
Most nights we play cards or shoot a few dice.
This is our life, the way it’s always been.
The newspaper goes round every set of eyes
We talk at the dinner table eating mum’s stew
Of events far away in places unknown
Of the local team, getting done again.
Then it finds its way to our room out the back
Where it’s a frosty walk each winter morning,
Though mum has a potty and dad the back door.
I read about the technology the other day
Of new innovations that will come our way
And we all agreed there may be change
But as dad said as he drove a nail into the wall
‘There’ll always be a need for a hammer
As they’ll never invent anything to take its place.’
http://pookypoetry.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/poetry-prompt-40-low-tech/
Morpethroad 
Nice post, Michael. It almost seems romantic the letters sent in the mail. I remember my first love letters waiting anxiously, going to the post office because it was not delivered then.
Now that’s going back a bit Oliana. You must be older than thought…lol
Well, the mail was not delivered until my late teens, really! but I did live in a small town.
oh ok, I do understand.
Oh and I’m old but I come from good stock!!! haha
Just as I suspected.
And some of us still write letters :-). What a wonderful poem. Thanks for sharing. I will come back as I am in need for some poetry prompts for my “A Prompt A Day For Bee” project. If you have an idea for a prompt feel free to send it to me. I will use it and put a link to your blog up.
ok….what about:
Discovery
Living in my garden
Nightmare
Lessons in life
What makes me laugh.
Joys in living
think you need some prompts that promote adventure as well as introspection…..just my thoughts Bee, good luck with it all.
Oh, brilliant thanks so much. Good advice I will work some adventures in 🙂
Great go for it I will look for them.
I love your prompts and have used a few already:
Living in my garden: http://riverflowing572.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/14-of-365-prompt-day-for-bee-living-in.html
Nightmare: http://riverflowing572.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/12-of-265-prompt-day-for-bee-nightmare.html
and
Discovery: http://riverflowing572.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/12-of-265-prompt-day-for-bee-nightmare.html
But still not much adventure in there 🙂
Thanks for this lovely prompt list
LOL I remember licking the back of Her Majesty’s head to attach a stamp to an envelope, the little house in the backyard and the squares of newspaper hung from a nail on the wall when toilet tissue was in short supply. We didn’t get an inside loo until 1970 😮
A great poem, Michael, that brought back so many memories.
Yes Lyn those were the days. I remember a scene in an old dad and dave film where the David Jones catalogue arrived and dave asks dad what he should do with it to which dad replies, stick a hole in the corner it hangs better that way.
Ahhh Dad and Dave. Then there was The Search for the Golden Boomerang, Ada and Elsie Smokey Dawson ~sigh~ they were the days 🙂
Yes the Bunk house show with Speed Jordan and Yes What……they were Lyn, where did they go?
Oh, I’d forgotten about “Yes What” with Greenbottle, Bottomley and Stanford and the ubiquitous cane 🙂
That show has stood the test of time still entertaining.
Great poem with a clever ending. So far, the dad was right.
Well not really. My dad said that to me when it was a boy and he was putting in a new floor. Little did he know the nail gun would be invented years later. Thanks for reading Gabriella. Have a great day.
Back to the past, how nice that would be, apart from the potty.
Thank you Jenny. I often wonder what happened to all those Pottys.
They went into the mouths of youths?
Wonderful poem Michael…gave me a bit of Amarcord, which I really enjoyed very much! But I’m afraid I’ve some terrible news for Dad…last week I reading about a new-fangled hammer …
Thanks Georgia. I do remember my dad saying that to me about the hammer. In his life time he saw the nail gun invented and used.
I forgot about the nail gun actually, still he was right that usually the hammer is the best for most things, like hanging pictures.
Great poem, sometimes the past was a good thing, some things the future made things easier and faster.
So true and thanks so much Jackie for reading and your comment.
This sounds idyllic! I loved letter writing, my grandmother and I wrote to each other regularly for years just because we both loved to receive letters!
I know what you mean. Sadly these days most letters I get are the ones with the windows. Thanks for your comment.
A nice nostalgic feel to this. I still prefer snail mail over email.
But – it’s the thought the counts. eh? 😉
There is something good about the feel of the letter in your hand isn’t there. Good comment RoSy.
Pingback: #21 of #365 A Prompt A Day For Bee ~ Lessons in Life – The Bee Writes…
Pingback: Blast from the Past: #26 of #365 A Prompt A Day For Bee ~ Dear Heart – The Bee Writes…