When your mother is a prolific poet, it may be best not to try and figure out too much about each individual poem.

Mom loved words, the sound of words. And weaving them together into poems was one of her life’s great delights.

Perhaps unfortunately, there’s something in me that is so literal, I have to spend at least a little bit of time to try and “figure out” each verse. As if it’s a riddle. Which I know it isn’t. But still …

There’s something about her “silhouette” that makes me want to dig around and find out who – or what – sparked the idea.

silhouette

around the river
beyond the bay
I hear you Chester Yesterday

opening windows
receive your song
ribbons of music all night long

in the starlight
the dancers seem
drawn to a far remembered dream

through the orchard
your saxophone
candles the lingering lovers home

around the river
beyond the bay
I love you Chester Yesterday

~ joan vayo, September 14, 1988

I took this poem to the good folks in the New Haven and Fair Haven “remember when” groups on Facebook to see if anyone remembered a band or a performance venue from the 1940s or ’50s that was somehow connected to “Chester Yesterday.” Mom was born in New Haven and lived on Chatham Street until she and Dad married in 1952.

There were all sorts of ideas and good guesses, but nothing clicked. (My favorite was that Chester was an old boyfriend. Unless it was a code word for Dad – who was given the rather unrhymable* name Harold – that was a miss, as they were both each other’s first-and-forevers.)

Another suggestion was the town of Chester, Connecticut. It’s a small town located about 40 minutes northeast of Fair Haven.

While snooping around, I did take note that Mom would have approved of all today’s events in Chester:

Another thought was Chester Street in New Haven. It’s across the Quinnipiac River from Fair Haven, though, so unless Mom knew someone who lived on Chester Street, chances are she didn’t just drive by and notice the sign.

And so, we’ll have to do what Mom’s poetry was meant for in the first place – use our imaginations.

Maybe Mom saw the name Chester and the word “yesterday” popped into her mind as a fun rhyme. So she wrote it down. From her boxes of archives, I’ve seen notepaper where she sometimes jotted down dozens of phrases and ideas. For later.

*On second thought, the name Harold isn’t all that unrhymable: periled, caroled, imperiled, and barrelled all come to mind. (See? Too literal.)

There’s something so lighthearted and romantic about “silhouette.” Seems the perfect time to share a sweet and silly photo of Mom and Dad from their dating days.

I love you Chester Yesterday!

“silhouette” © 1988 Joan Vayo. All rights reserved.

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