As I move through the challenge of writing a poem a day for a year, I’m trying different forms and experimenting. Today, my poem for The Stafford Challenge is a luc-bat, a Vietnamese poetry form that alternates six and eight syllables with internal and end rhyme scheme. I refinished my late grandmother’s table recently, and I often think about all the family members who have ever sat at this table – and all the stories told here. I wonder, sometimes, whether family members in Heaven get passes to visit and check on the living. And whether there is a kitchen full of spirits listening in, checking on us to see what we’re doing.
I hope so!
Family Gatherings
table transformation
for our congregation of folks
family pride evokes
stories build laughs and jokes from past
so those long gone will last through time
ancestors living ~prime of life
conjured husband and wife ~spirits
pasts with presents - - its future
gatherings to endure ages
Common Threads 
Love all of this, Kim! The table, the contrast, the prelude, the poem! You’ve packed so much history and emotion in a short post.
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Thank you, Melanie!
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I really like the “congregation of folks” which evokes both the ordinary gatherings, the imagined gatherings, and the religious gatherings at church. It all mingles in that line. And the table is spectacular. I remember when you wrote about that project.
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Thank you for reading! Yes, this has been a work in progress. You have a good memory!
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Favorite line: those long gone will last through time
And I recall when you blogged about refinishing oyur table. I’m glad it became your subject today as it is a gorgeous refinished project! Worthy of another slice with a nod this time toward ancestors!
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Thank you, Sally, you have a good memory!
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Kim,
You have done an amazing job w/ that table. It’s gorgeous and will be beautiful set w/ spring place settings on Easter. It’s also fascinating to see how folks are novi g through the Stafford challenge. I’ve played w/ some forms but am finding inspiration in reading Kate Baer these days. I’ve written some bad poems in March, but that’s okay. I’ll devote more time to poetry writing in April and the coming months.
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Glenda, I’m coming around to the idea that what I thought of before as a bad poem is a draft poem. I notice sometimes the number of revisions I have on something, and I’m wondering if there is a connection, Thank you so much for the words about the table. I don’t know now if I would take on a project like that again. That’ll be for many generations in the future to do.
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Wonderful idea to write a luc-bat commemorating your gorgeous table and loving family. I am smitten with “our congregation of folks” thinking how ‘congregation’ connects to your faith, your upbringing with a preacher dad (I think I’ve picked this up from your writings, hope I’m not mixing up stories, lol). Great slice!
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Thank you, Maureen!
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I have reviewed the luc bat form before. I have never written one though. Your poem is incredible. I love the photo of your table. It looks so inviting and your poem captures the importance of this beautiful family table.
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Thank you, Barb! That was a project to refinish it. I appreciate your kind words.
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Oh, Kim, you did pure magic with that table. I love the white trim and chairs. How fun! Every time I read a Luc Bat, I fall more in love. I love that internal rhyme.
Favorite lines:
“stories build laughs and jokes from past
so those long gone will last through time”
Such a beautiful sentiment.
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The dining table transformation is stunning! I wish I could transform myself like that. I need a little tender-loving rejuvenation! I love the idea of the past and present living together for another generation.
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I am in that club, too – – I need a transformation too. You bring to mind Romans 12:2, and so much of what I read on the blog posts is truly the peace of living, little snippets of what is good in the world. I love March because it brings me out of the comfort of a wrinkled nightgown and helps me see, before the world starts moving out of the deep freeze of winter, that there are wonderful things happening out there. And it makes me want to grab a paintbrush and plant a garden and refinish a table and press plants. I’m with you, friend, on the transformation yearnings.
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