Memories

"When you come to me unbidden

Beckoning me

To long-ago rooms

Where memories lie

Offering me, as to a child, an attic

Gatherings of days too few

Baubles of stolen kisses

Trinkets of borrowed loves

Trunks of secret words,

I Cry."

Words mean different things to different people. This poem of Maya Angelou is one of my favorites - always bringing the imminent hint of long misplaced memories. Though it talks of forgotten loves and secret rendezvous, for me for some reason this poem is reminiscent of forgotten scents and fragrances :)) 

Lodi Garden on a foggy morning

- fragrance of forgotten smells from a childhood home...morning walks in the park - of couples - young and old - walking hand in hand..and early morning joggers breaking into impromptu runs, of foggy smoky winter mornings and of blowing smokes in the air as a child waiting for the school bus...

- memories of childhood games of hide and seek and lost and found..scent of secret whispers on a misty night reading Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys.. playing at secret societies with whispered passwords and girlish games of playing house...

- memories of a kitchen after a  day's baking...steam from the nth cup of tea hitting the nostrils on a winter-y pre-exam night...of late night distress calls to friends to discuss that last chapter in the syllabus that one always thought to be unimportant but of course was not anymore..

- and later more recent fragrant memories of long evenings with friends and early morning lie ins......, playing at being grown up as a confused teenager..., the first taste of wine..., the first experimental smoke...and the guilty smell of a sudden thrill that comes from finally breaking the barriers.....

I rejoice as I recall some of those sweet forgotten smells and sounds...but there are still scores of those tiny little incidents - so brazenly important at that time but now forgotten and lost ......like the words of a much loved song that was once known to heart.......