Poetry Moment – Faces in a Crowd

Posted on By RB

Over the past week, I’ve been working on cleaning out my footlocker. I’ve had it for decades and it’s packed with all sorts of miscellaneous debris – old photos, buttons, yearbooks, pamphlets, drawings, and junk. I actually haven’t opened it in years, so it was sort of like opening a time capsule. 

One of the things that struck me was the old photos. So many strangers there, faces I sort of recognize, others I have no clue, but at some point they were part of my life. Now, they are all just faces in a crowd.

 

A face in a photograph, 

Standing next to me, smiling

Arms around shoulders, eyes alight

We were part of each other’s lives.

Decades have passed now,

We’ve drifted apart, forgotten

Now I only see a stranger there

Just another face in the crowd.

Funny how memory works

Some names remain present, others

Slip through the cracks, fading

I shift through the photos of strangers

And wonder if they remember me.

 

Have you gone through old photos and found that you’ve forgotten some of the names and faces?

RB

Personal Photography Poetry Writing

Comments (13)

  1. Oh, I love this! And the poem is so suiting.
    Might have to think about a drawing for this one.🙂

    Personally I don’t tend to keep many things from my past.
    And perhaps I am even regretting deleting the very first WordPress blog, where I mainly wrote about my life.
    But that’s me… pretty impulsive when it comes to deleting or throwing away stuff.

    Reply

    1. That’s actually impressive, Andrea. I’m not exactly a pack-rat, but I have too many items from the past laying around collecting dust.

      And I’m flattered that I may have inspired you again!

      But you know, you’re old blog could still be around: https://archive.org

      They have copies of my site going WAAAY back. 🙂

      Reply

  3. Beautiful nostalgic poem!

    Time turns closeness into distance and mystery … Memory is tender, you know!

    And yes, there r so many faces whose names i’ve forgotten …

    Reply

    1. Wonderfully said, Roksana. Memory is tender and fleeting.
      Thank you for stopping by, my friend. 🙂

      Reply

  5. Love your poem, Richard. It rings so true. Some time in the middle of something else, the name may return to you, but will you remember the next time you look at that picture?

    Reply

Please leave a comment...