A Jersey Shore in Ryegate

A Jersey Shore in Ryegate

There were raspberries in that pasture

there was a hill from which we could

see a couple old Vermont towns

we were the youth of the fifties

scrambling through the brush

dodging cows that gave us

a puzzled eye

chewing cud in docile amusement

the herd stared silently 

So many decades later

I walked up to where the barbed wire fence

once stood separating humans and bovines

no fence, no cows, no youth

all of it grown over with brush

that hill lost in youth

surely still on that once pure green

horizon 

but now just a memory

leaves me pondering

what those cows thought of us

and how strange we must have

seemed to them

as we carried buckets of raspberries

back to the old farmhouse.

erin-cilberto

7/19/25

Reviews

[DIVYA]

Time has rolled on yet it could do litlle to erase those memories...The farmhouse, the hills, the fences and the cows are still as real now as they were then. Here is a world that's beyond the tread of time and will go on forever. In this world, you'll always be the youth you were, scrambling, through the brush collecting raspberries. Those cows must have thought you strange and probably still do and as you keep dodging them. To me, its as it is and always will be.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Those cows must have thought I was an idiot.
A part of me will always be that 7 year old kid...and they are the best memories I have.
I know you get it. Thank you, friend.
j.

[Ted Kniffen]

There is much to be said about coming of age in a much gentler time. Living in a small town surrounded by farmland provided many memories to chew on. Much like that bovine cud who would look at you as if they could understand we strange creatures.

Yes, so much has changed in the years since but I owuldn't change too much of the experience.

I always thought of my Grandad and what changes he saw ... the advent of the automobile ... aircraft
radio ... television ... the list goes on and yet he coped.

Feel bad for the kids strapped to their devices as they are ... seeming to miss out on so much.

I quite liked this one j.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you so much Ted...and yes, they do miss out of so much by just staring at their screens.
I will always treasure those years in Ryegate as so special.
j.

[Kady R.]

Hiiii J!!

Excited about this new poem of yours. I can understand coming back to a place that's no longer the same. My mother would talk about the waterfall in her old town in Puerto Rico and how it was for bathing and washing cloths. She had a lot of fond memories of that waterfall. We went back to her old town when I was in elementary school and the waterfall was dried up!!! All those memories dried up with it. Pretty crazy how things can change so fast like that.

Anywho, your childhood sounded like a very adventurous one, picking raspberries among the cows going back to the old farmhouse. What a joy it is to have those kind of memories.

Thanks for the blast into the past!! 🤗🤗🤗

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I love waterfalls...my favorite I have seen was Niagra Falls from the Canadian side. The Vermont vacations were the best gift our parents ever gave us.
Thank you, Kady,
j.

[Kady R.]

Of course🤗🤗🤗waterfalls are the besttt!!!

[h d e rushin]

"No tears in the writer. No tears in the reader. No surprise for the writer. No surprise for the reader. The initial delight is the surprise of remembering something I didn't know I knew". Robert Frost. / excellent. dana

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you, dana...and what a great Frost quote.
j.

[Chris Shaw]

Is it a disappointment to travel back and find that it has all changed? Will you remember it in the future as it is now or as it was when you were young? I think you will always remember those buckets of raspberries and the cows who stared at you with their huge eyes who are part of your childhood memories dear j.

Chris

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I will remember both...never forget how it was in the fifties...but never forget the people I met this trip.
j.

[Lorry]

Those cows just gave out an indifferent moo and went about their day, but when all you know is your pasture you are king oftge world for all you know and don't give much thought to small humans who collect things other than milk in buckets while showing off and walking upright on theirtwi back hooves.
At least think that's what their moo meant but I'm not quite fluent yet!
Isn't it painful when you go back and see the places you knew change so much and not always for the better?
The fields we played in as kids had four soccer pitches and last time I was there washorrifiedto see they are now only a. Road diversion!
I mean, like we really need more of them! 😃

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Some parts overgrown and disappointing, but the bones of the place remain the same and always will.
the closeness of community and feeling part of the family will never change.

[Vol]

Jacob,
The image of the past as a great fog where the tiny little bits float in and out and no one knows but us... our private little joys because we stopped there to pick berries in a place now paved over for parking and something inside us crumbles for lack of attention... I wonder what's happening today? I wrote about memories and sleepless nights this morning, and every poem I've read today is about one, the other, or both... The last time I went back to my berry picking, chigger ridden patch, it was all gone and surrounded by miles of everything new.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

It is so unfortunate when the old haunts are gone and replaced with buildings...
thanks for the visit,
j.

[Kelly Scheppers]

Perhaps you were as much in accordance to their lives as they were to yours. How sad it must have been to see it all grown over with brush. Just another affirmation - that life really does go on. A memory well preserved, J. And very much enjoyed!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Parts yes, but other parts, still held the memories and always will.
thank you, Kelly,
j.