Growing up in Love and Relationships

Letting go. A half-fledged thing. A tape measure that runs out. A boy climbing his grandfather. Children leave; that is the point of them.

The quotes

10 quotes, in the order they happen.

Like a satellite Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away

Day-Lewis · Walking Away · parents and children · growing up · loss

His son walks off after a football match. Like a satellite torn loose. A father watching.

Half-fledged thing

Day-Lewis · Walking Away · parents and children · growing up

A bird not ready to fly. The son, seen from behind.

love is proved in the letting go

Day-Lewis · Walking Away · parents and children · growing up

The last line. Real love is letting them leave.

My father worked with a horse-plough

Heaney · Follower · parents and children · growing up

The first line. The boy watches his father plough. He wants to be him.

I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake

Heaney · Follower · parents and children · growing up

The boy trips along behind his father's big boots.

But today It is my father who keeps stumbling Behind me, and will not go away

Heaney · Follower · parents and children · growing up · loss

Now the father is old and the son cannot shake him off. The roles have swapped.

Anchor. Kite.

Armitage · Mother, any distance · parents and children · growing up

Two words. She holds him down, he wants to fly. A tape measure between them.

the last one-hundredth of an inch

Armitage · Mother, any distance · parents and children · growing up

They measure a room together. The tape runs out. He is about to leave.

to fall or fly

Armitage · Mother, any distance · parents and children · growing up

The last words. He reaches for the sky and does not know which it will be.

I decide to do it free, without a rope or net

Waterhouse · Climbing My Grandfather · parents and children · growing up

A child climbs his grandfather like a mountain, from the shoes up.