The poem and photo for "F" will have to wait for next week. I've been sideswiped by this week's poetry stretch. Tricia challenged us to write a love poem without using any terms of endearment or soppy lovetalk. Yeti and I will have been together for 16 years this March, making tomorrow our fifteenth Valentine's Day together. I still have never written a love poem for him. The time for that poem has come! 
First, a few words of explanation. Yeti turned 55 last month, so he is a dyed-in-the-wool original hippy. (At 35, I'm forever destined to be a rainbow-coloured-wannabe LOL.) One of Yeti's heroes is Neal Cassady. He drove Furthur, the Merry Prankster's Magic Bus, and when he wasn't driving, he liked to play throw-and-catch with a sledgehammer. Neal is no stranger to poetry - he is the "secret hero" in Howl! I'm certainly no Ginsberg, but when I started trying to write a non-traditional love poem for Yeti, these were the things my mind revolved around. I was even inspired to buy a poster of Further - as she looks now - for Yeti's anniversary present (see photo below). I asked Zane Kesey (Ken Kesey's son) to write one of his father's quotes on the poster: "People think love is an emotion. Love is good sense."
("Furthur" is the motto of our relationship. For our wedding, we had an owl and pussycat cake, and the name on the pea-green boat was "Furthur". The sign on the back of the original bus read "Caution: Weird load." lol I guess that applies too!)
And now for my poem. I am going to keep it to give to him on our anniversary, partly because I want my present to be a real surprise, and partly so I have time to let it sit and think about whether I want to change anything. I'd love any advice! Please note - the Beat Generation were into experimental creativity in all its forms. This poem is not in reference to any mind-altering substance - except love, of course!
I'm still searching for a title. I'm thinking something with "aura" in it, but I just can't get it... maybe I'm looking in the wrong direction... I'd use 'Furthur', but it's already an acrostic!
Flipping a sledgehammer, working a rhyme,
Using our dreams to keep grasping the real.
Round the free will we go, turning the wheel.
Trip to the metaphor, skip through the time,
Hold onto happiness, stronger than steel -
Under the rust is a rainbow's appeal.
Riding the merry bus: love is sublime.
Pictures by Zane Kesey.
And to finish, something from "my" era that gives me the same peaceful-happy feeling that I mean by "aura" :D
Poetry Friday this week is over at Big A little a. See you there!
4 comments:
I love the rhythm and rhyme in this! You've got the musical flow really going. I would be tempted to put something of the "good sense" quote in the title.
How fun is this? Thanks for the explanation! My favorite lines:
Using our dreams to keep grasping the real.
Round the free will we go, turning the wheel.
Schelle, I love the rhythm, too. My favorite line is "under the rust is a rainbow's appeal" (maybe because I'm still thinking of my "39" quotes!).
Congratulations on your years of "happiness, stronger than steel"!
Nicely done. I like the use of "free will", which results in ambiguity:
"round the free/will we go" or "round the freewill we go". Very cool.
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