The poem, ‘Daisy-Chained Summers’ looks back to a time of childhood, when imagination and expectation made everything magical.  I have some wonderful memories of playing outside at school break-time, feeling fast and free and part of something that only my friends and I could experience.  It’s only with some distance, that I have been able to put a few moments from this joyful time into words.  Now, a parent, I want my children to feel as exhilarated as I did back then, more so.  I want adventures to be a reality.

Daisy-Chained Summers

Poetry of Childhood

Over long, daisy-chained summers
I wondered

how
an imaginary horse might move,

I took on the actions, my hands
were the hooves, my feet made the noise
and as I galloped, friend after friend
joined me, became a parade.

We wondered

if a love-bird really knew
how to love, or if his feathers
grew like a rainbow,

the truth was all in our eyes

as we rolled ourselves into small
bundles, took on the hills, the grass,
the bark, grazed our bodies,
earned scars for life,

wondered

what adults did all day.

K. S. Moore

(First published in The Stinging Fly, 2017)

Photo by K. S. Moore.

Update: 18/02/2019.  This poem has been entered into Americymru’s West Coast Eisteddfod Online Poetry Competition at https://americymru.net/community/forum/west-coast-eisteddfod-online-poetry-competition-2018/p=2