Lucy's B-Day Poem

[Lucy Hartley <hartley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi again,

Sometimes I write poetry, too--not often, unfortunately, because I don't
have much free time.  I had planned to include a poem of my own with my
Daddy's Birthday Poem-Book.  The problem was, I never got a chance to write
one because I was so busy typing up the many poems and messages that you
guys sent!

But I thought you might like to read a poem that I wrote for my Daddy last
year on his 75th birthday.  Although it's not a "PD-poem," it was certainly
written with my Daddy's Parkinson's in mind.

The inspiration for the poem was this:  When I was a little girl, my Daddy
and I used to watch a Public TV show called "Fun with Origami" (Japanese
paper-folding).  Daddy would buy packs of the colorful Origami paper, and we
would spend nearly every Saturday watching the program and making Origami
birds. Before Parkinson's, my Daddy was a "master" with his hands--he
painted and sketched and he could fold the most perfect Origami crane you
ever saw!

So last year at Birthday time (thirty-something years after the TV show), I
re-learned how to fold Origami cranes.  Then I folded 75 birds of all
different colors and used them to make a mobile that hangs from the ceiling.
And here's the poem that went with it:

CHILD'S PLAY
 For Daddy

Her careful fingers folded paper rainbows
Into flying cranes.
Two teachers watched and waited their turns.
One, with crinkled brow and dimpled chin,
Studied the crane's creases, the points of its wings.
His hands, more nimble than a child's,
Smoothed an edge, then crimped a corner.
And the beak was formed.

The other teacher smiled from the airwaves.
His brow was more squinted than crinkled,
But his hands worked magic, too.
His name was Origami.
(At least that's what she thought.)
"Fun with Origami."
Yes, he was a lot of fun--
Both teachers were.

Mr. Origami left the air some time back.
But his cranes are still there:
Paper rainbows dressing up the sky,
Their wings whispering in the wind
Like sweetly murmured memories
Of having fun with Origami.

           --Lucy Hartley
             9/2/94

Thanks for letting me share my treasured memories.

hartley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx