My Memory of It
Then and now
and forty years in between the two
but I know I looked out this window
at this oak tree
I know it. I sat here in this room
and looked out this window
I am sure I would have done so
at least once while I was here
for in all that time of course
it would have been impossible not to
certainly it would have
but
remember this oak tree?
No. I do not.
8/21/19
8/26/19
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
This is a thought-provoking rumination on the impact of time on memory, the things that take root and the things we forget.
I had revisited my college library when I wrote this poem after not being in there for almost 40 years and the experience was unsettling. This poem describes one aspect of it, things that were there I did not remember. And the other part, even worse, things and people that should be there (as I saw it) and were not. Time does not stand still and sometimes the reminder is so abrupt it is painful.