Showing posts with label response poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label response poetry. Show all posts

Sunday, 19 March 2023

Ignoring Bill

 

Could easily be this bus too! 


In some life I'll go to Italy. I'll ignore Bill. 

But not set foot on the Appian, nor the seven hills,

and make no attempt to see the rich, coffered ceilings -

treat all the cities with the same indifferent feeling,


walk lightly on some nondescript shoreline untouched by

history or magnificence or art. Not bother my

head with shapes of cuisine, what roads are made of, what's home,

compare my comfort zones and this strange coastline of foam,


no, none of that touristy fretting. Instead I'd wear

each day like a daisy behind my ear. From the air

pluck an hour floating down like a feather rinsed in light

and stick it golden in my cap. No bus stops in sight,


I'd ask directions off some farmhand, neither of us

speaking the other's tongue. He'd still get me to the bus. 



~^~^~^~^~


Well, obviously the thing about cats and nine lives hasn't finished buzzing round my bonnet yet. I was reading Billy Collins - one of my many comfort zones, the particular poem is linked in the first line if you're interested. So, naturally. One can dream of being light hearted. Light hearted is a comfort zone too.


The heart is especially in need of lightening and comfort right now. Even as I aspire to run off on some footloose n fancy free trip to unknown bits of the Med, I am in actual fact on my way to Cal quite unscheduled, accompanying hubby on a crisis management mission. 


The offspring was here from NC for the spring break last week, within my helicoptering orbit for a brief time so that was made the most of...those skills were specially shined up for the occasion. That's the good news. The bad news is that the news never stops going bad, never mind how well the month starts off...And so we're going to Cal. We're back in Fiji early April and hopefully I'll be in better control of blogging and time away from blogging by then. Fingers, toes and all limbs crossed. However, the weight on ye olde heart is likely to remain off the charts for the foreseeable future.


I was planning on signing up to the theme reveal at the A-Z last week but thought better of it as I've no idea what my March will end up like. I know I am at the A-Z in April, this is my tenth year running and I am determined to complete the challenge...we shall see. I've got my theme loosely worked out, I'm delving deeper into Aspects of Fiji. Like last year but I was hoping a bit less frazzled, less haphazard and more interesting because it'd not be based on my personal experience alone. Less one sided is what I'm trying to say. A slightly more objective lens now that I've spent a year over here. My usual cultural thumbnails, if you've read the other A-Z posts here you'll know what I mean. But frazzled is the flavour of this decade...I think the universe has given me enough signs for me to write it off as a train wreck


Not sure if I'll be able to post from India...probably too much going on, but if I can I will. Till then, keep well. See you soon. 


Sunday, 10 January 2021

This is the thing with feathers...

 




A couple of days in and the wing feathers

are already bedraggled; the weather

is strangely warm when it should have been cold

- summer in winter.  The year is just days old.

 

Somewhere the light’s dying. Somewhere icy winds

have knifed trees. More grace than can be imagined

even in the unkempt, in the shady light -

the rims of hope and grace are seldom watertight.

 

The anglers are gone, the fishing boats are back,

sun’s in its rightful place in the zodiac.

Waiting for the bones to move a bit less smooth

the flesh to peel away and reveal the truth –

 

that feathers, shaggy or not, knifed trees and all

remain beautiful however the light falls.