Over the Rainbow
Poem - by Lisa Timpf
I
I’ve long clung fast to the story
about the rainbow bridge, and the meadow
where our furry friends of bygone years await,
but the passing of my border collie
in cold and gloomy February hit me
harder than expected and afterward, I,
having passed the threshold of sixty years
on this blue planet, could suddenly glimpse
that indistinct and distant shore that lies ahead,
knew for certain I was headed there as well
II
so easy to say, we’ll cross that bridge
when we come to it, then
push all thought from our minds
like we tend to do with unappealing
notions. Like spiders. Or death.
Or our own mortality. We try
to forget, until some loss
comes along to remind us.
III
it’s said that a cat doesn’t just purr when it’s happy,
but also when it wishes to comfort itself,
and maybe stories like the rainbow bridge
are the same thing, an expression
of our deepest yearnings, told over
and over as though repetition
might make them more real
IV
then again, maybe stories are a place
where deeper truths reside
V
not everything that is true can be
explained, and not every explanation
encompasses what’s important.
Take a rainbow, for example.
You can talk about reflection and
refraction and dispersion, but those words
don’t capture the magic.
The catch of breath at the beauty.
There’s more to life than facts. Formulas.
Objects that can be touched and seen.
So I will choose to cling to hope,
and believe in that story that tells us
they are there, in that vast and grassy
meadow, all the beloved pets
who left us too soon, eyes alert, heads
high, waiting for us to arrive
so we can cross that bridge together.
Lisa Timpf
Roxy, fiction, Issue 32, September 1, 2015
Into the Ring, Issue 34, March 1, 2016
Roxy's Rule, Issue 40, Sept 15, 2017
One Man's Trash, poem, Issue 41, December 15, 2017
Fidelis Reinvented, poem, Issue 43, June 2018
Gone, fiction, Issue 44, September 15, 2018
What Really Happened, poem, Issue 44, September 15, 2018
No Fairy Tale World, poem, Issue 47, June 15, 2019
From Cat to Fiddle, poem, Issue 48, September 2019
Canem Roboto, poem, Issue 55, June 2021
Over the Rainbow, poem, Issue 56-57, Fall/Winter 2021
Lisa Timpf is a retired HR and communications professional who lives in Simcoe, Ontario. Her writing has been published in a variety of venues, including Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Very Good, Very Bad Dog as well as New Myths, Third Flatiron, Thema, and an anthology entitled Dogs of War. Lisa enjoys bird-watching, organic gardening, and golfing. The antics of her Border Collie, Emma, have provided inspiration for several of her stories. Read more of her work at lisatimpf.blogspot.com. You can also find her on Goodreads.
Get to know Lisa...
Birthday? February 1
When did you start writing?
I have always enjoyed writing, starting from writing longer-than-necessary sentences for spelling assignments in grade school. I wrote for student newspapers in grade school, high school, and university, and also had a stint as a sports writer for a daily newspaper in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
When and what and where did you first get published? One of my first paid-for published items was a poem published in Herizons magazine when I was at grad school. I also wrote sports pieces for the student newspapers at McMaster University and Dalhousie University.
What themes do you like to write about?
I enjoy writing about themes related to nature, the environment and animals, as well as mysteries.
What books and/or stories have most resonated with you as an author? Why? How do these stories and their characters find expression in your work?
As a child, I enjoyed Kipling's The Jungle Book, C.S. Lewis's Narnia series, and Walter Farley's Black Stallion stories. As a teenager, I discovered Andre Norton and Robert A. Heinlein. I like these authors' ability to tell simple but compelling stories in vivid settings with characters that the reader can care about.
Website? https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14984565.Lisa_Timpf.