Memory

 

Pocket watch on the beach (AI image)

Here are some of my favorite poems about memory, copyright 2026 Paula Light.

Flypaper

[free verse]

Why do some memories stick

Like dead bugs to flypaper,

Dark carcasses hanging on

No matter how I try to shake them off?

Sweeter moments dissipate,

Cotton candy on my tongue,

Warm sand sliding through my hands,

While hurtful words barnacle to my brain.

Perhaps it’s self-protection,

Red flags to warn me away

From those who would hurt again.

I examine the images as they mutate

Into unrecognizable shapes. 

Who said what and when?

Recollections grow dim,

But those emotions remain.

~*~

Processing 

[free verse]

I process memories

In the acid bath of time;

Latent images hover like ghosts

Limned in silver salts.

Stay away from the door;

Red light glows warning,

As I wait in this hazy grey

Limbo between what was

And what I shall be

Allowed to see.

Traveling through the past,

I peer behind the glass,

Beyond these cloudy negatives,

Searching for clues,

Something I can use,

To differentiate a grain

Of truth from the dross,

Without washing both

Down the greedy drain.

I’m left with blurred lines,

Slides of life’s slices defined,

But devoid of context

And out of focus.

Smiles stretch so wide

They could mean anything

Or nothing at all;

Distorted dreams drift

Across skies impossibly green;

A tree grows out of your head

And disappears into the mist.

Is it morning or night?

I’ve lost all sense of time.

The colors are too bright—

I blink in confusion

When I step outside.

Next time I shall try

To capture these moments

In plain black and white.

~*~

Ethereal 

[diminished hexaverse]

Ethereal mist

Permeates the night

Elicits snapshots

Memories gone by

Movies of my life

Yesterday’s dreams

Best forgotten

Banished to time’s

Lonely scrap box

Yet they come

Unbidden

Unwanted

Eerie

Haunting

Ghosts

~*~

Foggy Mirror 

[tercet chain with a coda, like a mini-sestina]

I saw a reflection of love

Within the lake’s foggy mirror;

Possibility seemed endless.

While loneliness remains endless,

I still struggle to define love,

Shape-shifting in a grey mirror.

I search for truth in the mirror.

Ghosts of memories are endless,

As are the illusions of love.

Endless mirror, fogging my dreams, never reveals the love that I need.

~*~

In Memory Of My Dad

[100 words]

Color him father:

Use the crayon of kindness,

Generosity and humor.

He loved reading the news,

Doing crossword puzzles too.

He sure had a sweet tooth.

If he were still around,

I’d bake his favorite fudge brownies

For his next birthday.

My father’s eyes were like mine:

Hazel and tired

From reading late into the night

When we should have been sleeping.

A song list for Dad

Would include the Doors,

Along with Bette Midler,

The Beatles, Zorba and Swan Lake—

He had eclectic tastes.

I miss you, Dad.

You were a good one,

And I love you so much.

~*~

Miss You 

[haibun]

The grey days of winter crash and foam, one much like another. Memories sprout like tender green buds under a warm yellow sun. You thrived in spring, with your hands in the dirt, coaxing forth a rainbow of blossoms.

Anniversaries pass, faster and faster. It’s been 15 years since we went to the fair and even longer since we did a puzzle, played a game, learned a new craft. You never had the chance to meet your great-grands, but I know you would love them. As I near the age you were, time unspools into the past, and the good times shine like diamonds in my mind.

These empty blue rooms

Echo my silent crying

I miss you Mommy

~*~

Haiku/Senryu (summer)

Bite into summer

Taste the juicy orange sun

Nectarine love song

Melting popsicle

Licking sticky fingertips

Keeping your secrets

Honeyed afternoon

Gold splashes through the window

Sunflower daydreams

Love’s sweet taste lingers

Long after you have left me

Summer’s fickle kiss

Oppressive stillness

The air thick with words unsaid

Too humid to move

Fleeting fantasies

Dissolve like cotton candy

Night comes home early

Picturesque snapshots

Waterlily memories

Float to days gone by

After the deluge

Blossoms bow in submission

Steam rises from earth

~*~

Haiku/Senryu (autumn)

Golden days with you

Treasured as the nights grow long

Heart-pressed memories

Untouched by losses

Petals dance in the sunshine

Clouds gather darkly

Autumn’s warm flavors

Sweeten chillier mornings

Tea and solitude

Close my eyes and wish

The wind whisks my hopes away

Seeded somewhere else

Stones grow slick with frost

Gelid stream traps fallen leaves

Summer plans have flown

Haunting is the eye

Of the beholding raven

As ghosts move closer

Captivating moon

Glimmers with ancient secrets

Please never tell mine

Demonic rumblings

Worms spill out of softened earth

The dead stay quiet

~*~

Winter Solstice

[free verse]

I embrace the dark like a lover:

Hours of cold solitude uninterrupted.

Gingerbread candles perfume the room

Like the cookies I never baked for you.

Jack Frost doesn’t make a naughty list

Or complain about our age gap—

He’s content to give me the shivers.

Too soon the night grows shorter again;

Long hours of daylight reveal my scars.

Broken memories bloom in spring,

Tangled with choking vines of hope.

Unwieldly expectations play their tune

Like the ubiquitous ice cream truck.

My fantasies have run amok…

I dream of my love’s icy fingers

Writing my name upon the windowpane.

~*~

Reconsolidation

[free verse]

Memories are like clay, 

I’ve heard,

Half-formed

Into wingless birds.

Pushed together

On a sea of waves,

Forever undulating,

They reshape,

Grow wings,

And escape,

Once exposed

To the winds of day.

As I try to recollect

The last time I saw you,

The room, the food, 

A movie playing on the tube…

The little birds flutter and fly,

Spin in dizzy circles,

And I can’t remember

If I laughed or I cried.

~*~

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“The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: 

It is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.” 

~ Salvador Dali

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