Saturday, April 18, 2015

Poem #17 for Poetry Month-Humorous Free Verse



 This one is from my poetry file, I must confess, and is great fun to read aloud before I start a public reading or end one. I'm working on saving it to memory (mine, not this computer's) as that is always so much better for audiences-and poems- than the usual poet-head-down-drone.

The only thing worse is the poet affecting a weird breathy poet voice and prancing around the stage with one finger held up to make tiny beats with said finger in the air but still with the head down and eyes glued only to the precious page. How I wish I was making this up.

But no, as with hockey, it's always wise to keep one's head up, to look other people in the eye and exchange conspiratorial grins. Poetry is supposed to be about us human beings after all. It's supposed to make us think, cry, and laugh. We can always do with more laughing.
I'm sure some people were snickering at two lightkeepers on the loose in Chicago, seen here trying to photograph themselves in the giant metal jellybean, a wonderful public art sculpture in a park filled with them. We are disoriented but still having a great time on our Amtrak Blues, Festivals & BBQ trip of 2012.



Lighthouse Keeper Goes to the City
     (for Kathryn MacLeod)

I don’t get out much
anymore & nearly got myself killed
last time in Victoria crossing
a street my friend calling out
‘Oh, Caroline, wait,’ or words
to that effect & I, yakking
away as is my wont, didn’t
notice the red light green light
business but a young mum in a Sport
Ute with compressed lips, the mum,
not the Ute, glared at me
but had the decency to stand
on her brakes & thus, I stand
before you here today Bedazzled
which is better than the alternative
which would be, sadly, for me at least,
Defunct.

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