We had a unique opportunity at the Celebrate Fremont @ the Park event last month. In the Fremont Tomorrow section of the park, Fremontonians of all ages and cultures sat down and learned how to write poetry.
They wrote about Fremont's past, the present, and the future. The Niles' Rotary Club wrote a poem about Fremont's past. Here is Part I of what the Shakespeares of Fremont had wrote about our past last month at the CF @ the Park event: I am my pale white shoe slapping the damp ribbon of concrete
hugging the curve of the lake, again and again
as my moving feet carried me around the duck-shrouded body of water.
Evidence of bird passage occasionally spattered
as my body moved through the early summer morning run.
I remember the thunderous claps of flame
spewing dragsters disappearing into the darkness
at Fremont Drag Strip.
I remember the chug, chug, chug
Whistle, wind, cold, smoke
Gliding the rails in Niles Canyon
At Christmas time
With the train lights
Reflecting off the full white moon.
I remember the soaring red-shouldered hawks
soaring in the cool breeze
above Mission Peak in the crisp autumn morning.
I remember the golden glow of grass and the red sunset
on the long long summer day
as I traveled through my mind on the windy trails of Mission Peak.
Motion was not present.
I remember driving through the Sunol Grade at sundown
just as the sun touched the horizon
and the golden rays of light lit up the fields of yellow mustard turning them to California gold.
I remember that springtime drive through Niles Canyon,
filtered sunlight casting eery shadows through the Eucalyptus Cathedral.
The creek boiling, swollen from winter run-off…
We played with the sunlight, then shadows, mysterious at every turn…Welcome Home!
Spring always returns me to the Fremont of my youth.
White & pink flowers cloak the bare brown skeleton’s
of apricot & cherry trees.
Bright yellow mustard flowers cling to plants
and lift softly in the bright blue sky,
while tri-colored blackbirds fill the air
and I breathe in the earthy smell of fresh turned earth.
I remember Fremont 1963 moving here- “the big country”
cows, orchards, mustard weeds, wildlife, big yards, bumpy roads
my father’s commute to S. F., no transit system,
no BART, no Lake Elizabeth to speak of,
Blue Gill fishing in cow hollows
then my brothers to Vietnam dark days
Bittersweet days being young, full of hope.
Training around Lake Elizabeth later.
Bringing my children here.
Feeling pain here.
Life around a lake.
Take a minute and think about the things you love about your past in Fremont... submit a comment! Add your own line... your own mark... your own signature... to our poem about Fremont's past!
