We see them from our boat,
these men and women dressed up
in Pilgrim clothes, as if Plymouth
is the new Brigadoon reincarnated
daily around a fake rock.
Had I been a real Pilgrim
I would've run off with a handsome
Medicine Man, slept on rabbit fur.
I would've warned my Medicine man
husband about the carnage already
brewing on the easterly winds.
I would’ve asked him to cast spells
upon all the birds in the forest
so their songs would bring peace
to land-greedy white men with guns
and Indians painting themselves
black and orange beside rising war fires.
Village and woods would be filled
with children of all colors,
beads clattering around their necks,
bellies filled with porridge.
I try to smoke the peace pipe with my lover,
one quarter Indian, himself,
but I never ran off with the Medicine Man
and the birds never sang their magic.
He slashes my throat with a word
and I bleed onto the deck until our boat
is drenched with the color of sunset.
from my book, Sea Trails(www.lummoxpress.com)
(this posting grew out of a discussion with an online friend about fake rocks and the Blarney Stone. Plymouth was our first stop on the '77 trip from Hull to Florida)
6 comments:
I don't often see Hull and Florida in the same sentence ! If it's the Hull in East Yorkshire (not far from me) ?
If by East Yorkshire you're referring to the one in England, darn, not me! This was Hull, MA, just south of Boston where I'd lived for the previous six years or so.
This is true of pretty much any poetry you post, but ...
I have no idea how anyone writes free verse. My songwriting depends on rules and parameters. With no limits, I'm lost.
Like anything else, there are guidelines in writing free verse, though they may var over poets and they're not as obvious as writing a form poem such as a sonnet. When I write I think of the beat of a line. If I have an emphasis on three syllables in a row, for example, it slows the poem and emphasizes those words. Where I make a break emphasizes the last word or makes the reader tumble over onto the next. Then, there's assonance and dissonance that enrich a poem. When you write free verse you can see this in other poems. If someone doesn't write free verse, then hopefully the poem just works, even though the reader doesn't know why.
I love music and yet when my music playing/writing friends talk about the brilliance of a particular chording etc. I've not noticed that. Same kind of thing.
Like anything else, there are guidelines in writing free verse, though they may var over poets and they're not as obvious as writing a form poem such as a sonnet. When I write I think of the beat of a line. If I have an emphasis on three syllables in a row, for example, it slows the poem and emphasizes those words. Where I make a break emphasizes the last word or makes the reader tumble over onto the next. Then, there's assonance and dissonance that enrich a poem. When you write free verse you can see this in other poems. If someone doesn't write free verse, then hopefully the poem just works, even though the reader doesn't know why.
I love music and yet when my music playing/writing friends talk about the brilliance of a particular chording etc. I've not noticed that. Same kind of thing.
5:49 AM
I really enjoyed reading this.
Loved the "medicine man.." line.
Happy New Year!
`William.
Post a Comment