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    Journey a Collection of Writings by Merrill Guillory
    Journey a Collection of Writings by Merrill Guillory
    Journey a Collection of Writings by Merrill Guillory
    Ebook157 pages55 minutes

    Journey a Collection of Writings by Merrill Guillory

    By Merrill Guillory

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    About this ebook

    Come...come, walk into my soul, the pages of my heart await you. Turn every page and walk with me as we move hand in hand into that world impervious to sound or nature. It is here where we will experience an awakening of absorbed emotions and dreams produced from the pages of my book. The entrance is open,
    welcome.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMerrill Guillory
    Release dateDec 14, 2017
    ISBN9781370296637
    Journey a Collection of Writings by Merrill Guillory
    Author

    Merrill Guillory

    Merrill Guillory, was the third of seven children born to Gervis and Lillian Boutte Guillory from the rural community of Mallet, Louisiana. Though the family moved from Mallet to Lake Charles, Louisiana at a young tender age, it would be the stories of his parents and grandparents that would shape the way his perspective of life would unfold through words written in his poems. His stories are told from the eyes of the heart and the experiences of living in an conflicting world of Creole and African American culture. A culture shaped and defined in the world of “Jim Crow,” and the painful loss of those who walked in that world through an intimate expression of nature found in the pages of “Journey.”

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      Book preview

      Journey a Collection of Writings by Merrill Guillory - Merrill Guillory

      Ali

      Shattered Dreams

      About the Author

      MEMORIES

      Father, Gervis Guillory ; Mother, Lillian Guillory

      Gravesite of my brother, Ronald James Guillory

      Dec. 19, 1946 -- February. 21, 1947

      Ascending

      Life bursts forth, a wailing yell

      Little eyes piercing the unknown

      Tiny hands and feet so frail

      Writhing face that knows not where he belongs

      Her arms caress that which was part of her

      A tender, gentle, loving smile so warm

      Her caring touch, soft kiss, her soothing face

      His little eyes, search and meet...now there’s calm

      Her smile is as fresh as the morning dew

      Her benevolent spirit breathes forth a new horizon

      A light shined forth with a burst of hue

      loving, kindness, graciousness to name a few

      A moment in time, captured in space

      Splintered memories, a void of fractured parts

      Precious moment locked in time is now far removed

      Only memories supplant his grieving heart

      A shadow hovers over, life slowly moves away

      Deep into this place, I know not where

      Only her eyes speak, from a place far away

      Dimmer, dimmer, dim...I know not where

      In this hallow chamber of dementia’s mind

      Deep into the shadow of this forsaken hell

      Innocence pierces this dark and shadowy time

      Her soft hands reach, she utters a wailing yell

      Momma, momma! He cries, she only stares

      From great depth she now descends

      A lone tear drop from he knows not where

      Into her mother's arms she now ascends

      The night is past, light has dawned with lasting peace

      Joy indescribable, she’s now embraced

      He caresses her into His gentle spirit of infinite care

      her loving heart awaits His moment of timeless grace

      Elysium

      Dementia came early in the life of mother, robbing her of her precious senior years, and would also claim her most intimate memory. Her first child would forever remain on her lips and her eyes would tell the story of the pain she experienced in the second month of nineteen and forty-seven. Mom and dad lived in a small rural house, more likened to a shed, ten miles from the nearest city and doctor’s care. In the early morning hours on a cold windy morning Gervis and Lillian Guillory laid their first born into his final resting place, unknowing that new life was taking form inside of her. In their memory, I share this intimate story Mom would repeat so dear to her heart.

      An oil lamp cast a somber shadow

      as the flickering light danced upon the walls.

      The winter of nineteen forty-seven was harsh,

      unforgiving to land, life and all.

      In its grip none were spared, crops withered,

      Life struggled to survive.

      She walked back and forth

      in the tiny room of that makeshift shack.

      He fought the wind and snow ten miles away,

      in search of a doctor to bring back.

      Desperation would not compromise with nature,

      firmly she held her grip this day.

      Cradled in her buxom dear to her heart,

      his tiny listless eyes pierced her bleeding soul.

      With each agonizing step,

      tears rolled softly from her cheeks to the floor.

      Grimly the reaper made its presence,

      his tiny eyes closed to open no more.

      As the reaper-wind hollers through the cracked walls,

      and the sky with angry bellowing clouds relents.

      A beam of light reflects on the make-shift hall,

      A tiny passage for a tiny soul ascends

      heavenward toward Elysium.

      On a cold brisk February morning,

      the young couple stood

      beneath the shade of a tall oak.

      Back to dust their young child of two months

      sleeps in silent peace.

      From heaven light came forth,

      into heaven, light returned.

      The doors of Elysium opened,

      from his ethereal home new life stirs.

      Under the shade of that tall oak,

      the young couple grieved their first born,

      in her fertile womb new life began

      and again they were three.

      Father

      We never had that one on one,

      those kind of talks that Ward had with Wally and the Beaver.

      You never came home from the office,

      but from a pit with callous hands

      that gripped a shovel in back-bending work.

      You cared deeply, but didn’t know how to express it,

      not the way Mr. Cleaver did.

      We knew early that world was not real,

      not like the one we lived in.

      You gave your best, your caring was harsh,

      and at times the relief of a drink was sought.

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