poignancy

keenly distressing to the feelings: poignant regret.

keen or strong in mental appeal: a subject of poignant interest.

affecting or moving the emotions: a poignant scene.

pungent to the smell: poignant cooking odors.

when i hear or read the word poignant, the first thing that comes to mind is a gripping, gut-wrenching memory...it can be a good memory or a bad one; an aching for something that can never be reproduced.

-as a little girl falling asleep listening to the sound of the American flag flapping in the lake breeze in Park Rapids at my grandparents' cabin

-the haunting call of the loon on Long Lake in the dead of night

-passing the house on Fairlawn 

-feeling my little brother's steady grip on my shoulders when he would hitch a ride on the back of my bike as kids

-every Christmas when I smell the fresh pine scent of the tree we've just hauled in, I think back to Christmases past as a little kid with the expectancy of what joy and surprises Christmas morning would bring

-when I see a baseball card, I think back to lazy summer nights as a kid, watching Twins games with my big brother; he would explain the rules of the game and I would try to soak everything up so I could impress him later with my astute commentary

-watching images of September 11

and i'm not sure i even used the word poignancy correctly, so feel free to tell me. :)

                                          lake superior