One of my favourite songs is “Try to remember”. This is how it goes:
Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh, so mellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain so yellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a young and callow fellow,
Try to remember and if you remember then follow. Try to remember when life was so tender
That no one wept except the willow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That dreams were kept beside your pillow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That love was an ember about to billow.
Try to remember and if you remember then follow. Deep in December, it’s nice to remember
Although you know the snow will follow.
Deep in December, it’s nice to remember
Without a hurt the heart is hollow.
Deep in December, it’s nice to remember
The fire of September that made you mellow.
Deep in December our hearts should remember then follow. follow, follow, follow…
We will need to remember how our lives were in the past September because the poetry of this month has gone away engulfed in wildfires, quarantines, and unusual weather for the season. And we are watching all that from our homes keeping distance, covered by masks. We don’t even know if the snow will fall in December. At least where I live has almost disappeared from our landscapes. White Christmas used to be real. Now is only a song.
Climate change is transforming our everyday experiences and is locking up many loved feelings we have taken for granted in the world of the memories. Just memories.
So, Don’t give up.
Try to remember
the kind of september
when grass was green
and grain so yellow
Yes, try to remember what you can enjoy now because you don’t know how long will last.
I have cried for the trees burned in California. I once saw them in their glorious splendor. I’m trying to remember them when they were green, and the sunlight played with their leaves, sparkling and showing their fabulous colors. I’m trying to remember that kind of September when I could breathe clean, fresh air, and I felt young and happy.
I’m trying to remember that kind of September. To avoid realizing that I’m living in this real hard September, I certainly won’t miss it in December.