First Love and the School Reunion
Click on Photos to Enlarge.
Then and Now
First Love
Zing! went our heartstrings. Zang! went our souls.
Eyes filled with wonder, hearts cupped like bowls
ready to fill with passion and love.
Putting each other on like a glove.
First kisses miracles we’d never known.
No longer single all on our own.
Someone to cuddle, someone to spoon.
Hand holds and lip locks over too soon.
Misunderstandings, squabbles and fights.
Heartbreak and lonely Saturday nights.
Then a new glance from cars “U”ing main.
Flirting and wooing all over again.
More hugs and kisses parked on a hill.
How to forget them? We never will.
At school reunions, we relive those lives,
husbands beside us, or boyfriends or wives.
Talking of other things: study halls, games,
but always remembering carving those names
in desktops and memory—first loves forever—
tendrils that bind us that we cannot sever.
We’ll soar ahead to the rest of our lives,
collecting new memories—bees in our hives.
But no honey finer than that we made first.
No sweeter lips and no stronger thirst.
Stored in our hearts, remembered but hidden,
hoarded like treasures sealed in a midden,
our lives are made richer by both now and then.
Past memories opening over again
spill out old secrets, then seal them away
to be unwrapped on some future day
when old schoolmates meet for two days’ reminiscing
of school pranks and ballgames and homework. And kissing.
The SOCS prompt for Aug 31, 2024 is “School.” This is a reblog of a poem written in 2016.



I loved this, Judy! High school reunions are fun even though Jim was my first love. Great pictures, too.
On Fri, Aug 30, 2024 at 10:18 PM lifelessons – a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown
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Thanks, Pam. This was the only girl/boy party we ever had. It was in the basement of our house which still hadn’t had a ceiling or tiles put in or been painted. We were all sweaty from dancing.
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We had just been in our new house for a year or two and the basement hadn’t been fixed up yet, so the ceiling was bare boards and wires, the building brick walls were unpainted and the floor was just cement. We were all sweaty from dancing but it was fun. It was the only girl/boy party other than school events that this group ever had. We never dated much, either, except for proms. My first boyfriend was from out of town. The guys in our age group slow to work up courage (or interest) to date.
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A beautiful poem which evokes so many memories
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For me, too, Sadje. Glad my older sister took these photos!
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Yes, we realize the importance of pictures when we want to recall those moments
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Glorious
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Did you ever have parties like this when you were in your teens, Derrick? I think we were all 12 or 13 in this photo.
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I was never a group animal except on the sports field. I definitely missed out.
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I love this poemits perfect 💜💜💚
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Thanks, Willow. Glad you enjoyed it.
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Thank you I did 💜
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So, I got about halfway down this poem and realized I’d forgotten to check the blog title first. Well, I thought, with rhyme and meter of this kind of quality it has to be someone on a very shortlist… Add the lightly entertaining yet deeply profound theme… It’s GOT to be Judy…
Great ending image, too 🤭
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Ah, thanks, Ana. xo
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Sweet.
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Love the spirit of the poem. Thank you for sharing.
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