Poet's Corner

[MikeJD 0]

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Can you relay any of the bonfire stories? I even tried googling "the phantom tenth man," and nothing came up!

Ah, well - I think he introduced it as The Ballad of Flying Fred, or some such title. I only discovered its (apparently) official name from this thread, where I'm sure you'll find much to entertain you. The poem in question is the second post in that thread. Enjoy!

[truckerjean 0]

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Quote

Can you relay any of the bonfire stories? I even tried googling "the phantom tenth man," and nothing came up!

Ah, well - I think he introduced it as The Ballad of Flying Fred, or some such title. I only discovered its (apparently) official name from this thread, where I'm sure you'll find much to entertain you. The poem in question is the second post in that thread. Enjoy!

Kewel, Thx! I didn't know it existed! -jeannie

can I borrow a jump ticket real quick?

[truckerjean 0]

QUOTE OF THE MONTH:
Bikerbabe:

"...poems seem to imitate thoughts better than just writing out a paragraph of prose. Not to mention, they stand alone rather than needing pages of buildup."

Absofuckinglutely!

can I borrow a jump ticket real quick?

[kallend 2,105]

I loved THIS when I was a kid. It's about a mail train from London to Glasgow.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[truckerjean 0]

A Flea and a Fly in a Flue
Were imprisoned, so what could they do ?
Said the Fly, " Let's Flee"!
Said the Flea, " Let's Fly " !
So they Flew through a Flaw in the Flue.....

So, I know, God decided to grant me a wish to never have a period again. With the granting, though, came five months of miserable hot-flashes and almost no sleep; I begged for it to end. Being the supreme granter of wishes and prayers, God decided he would heed my call after eight months. His answers never come without a price. For the first time in my life, I have serious PMS – yep, we are talking mood swings. So I cried tonight, a lot. I know why, though…I am terrified.
I am thinking about the move to TN (I really should get used to spelling it with some confidence, I guess…). I am moving to Tennessee!? No way! Really? Yep. The whole thing terrifies me like the final five minutes in the plane just before going out the door on my first jump.
It was almost eleven years ago, my 37th birthday, that I decided I was finally going to realize my childhood dream of flying; I was going to skydive. I went alone without telling a soul. It was all good until that last five minutes. Suddenly, I looked out the window, and the horizon was round. Why, after all the plane rides in the window seat, had I never noticed that the horizon is round at 12,000 feet? Someone opened the door, and people started actually exiting the plane into thin air. One by one - even a couple of groups - they all had big smiles on their faces and a maniacal gleam in their eyes. I was about to be sick, I just knew it, but before I could embarrass myself, I was at the door and in the pose my instructor told me to be in: arms across my chest.
Upon exit, I laughed and cried at the same time, and I screamed – I am sure of it, and then I couldn’t breathe for all that wide open air. I imagined that the wind was vacuuming my heavy soul clean, and I never wanted it to end. My terror was brief.
Now I have to live with the terror of newness for longer than five minutes, I have to imagine the act of falling out of my safe and comfortable place every minute of the day for every day until I make the jump. Who wouldn’t cry a little? Who wouldn’t be afraid? If I had one shred of intention of backing out of this new adventure, I would stay put, but I am Me, and I know Me, and Me is ready to move on out of this door!
Eleven years to the day, almost, and I will be changing my voter registration to my new state of Tennessee and doing cartwheels in the grass and checking my altimeter for the blue mountain skies ahead. It’s gonna be petrifying, and I won’t really be able to blame God or PMS. Crap. “DOOR!”

can I borrow a jump ticket real quick?

[truckerjean 0]

Little Girl Flying



There is no mark that a skydiver leaves; no vapor trail, no tracks in the snow, no wake in the water. You would not even know we had been there if not for the blue sky that whispers of the sweet, secret, passing of souls through its magnificence. The blue sky is loud and cannot keep a secret very well from those who choose to listen. I remember every word for I have passed through that beauty. I have seen the light from other souls. I have witnessed the silent screaming of joy and I have tasted my own love. I was born here.

I was a little girl with the first dawning of innocence being slowly broken by years. I wanted so much to feel the Truth. I wanted to be free and untouched by ugliness. I would sway in the tree-tops for hours, bending the branch to the very cusp of its snap. I wanted to know that God was there. I wanted everyone to know that I was not afraid.

I was terrified. Not of the tree or of its branches breaking, but of living a life without hope of ever being good enough. Most of all, I wanted to be happy. The tree made me happy. The cold-metal taste of the sky made my tongue bless my ancient eyes, and the dark, secret flesh of the highest leaves caused my thighs to grab tightly. It was my new heart speaking to my aged soul. “Fly!”

can I borrow a jump ticket real quick?

[MikeJD 0]

These things I carry with me:
Flutter of fabric
Thunder of engines
Cool breeze
Hot tarmac.

These are the charms that get me through
The grinding, ground-bound hours -
And the days spent pinned
By the pointless pull of the world.

These are the arms that lift us up
To the gleaming nimbus towers,
To the endless wind,
To the bright blue veil unfurled.

The earth, and air, and us
Transposed, transformed.

The sun that baked the soil on which we crept
Now fires the distant lakes
And, flung through the propellor's gleaming arc,
Lights up the walls of this,
Our shared cocoon
That soon
will split
And spit us into life.

We exist but a minute,
Yet we live a thousand times
And the world we inhabit
Is perfect.

We were diluted, listless, a frown on every face.
We are delivered, laughing, into gravity's embrace
As a cold, bold shoulder of rolling cloud,
Silent witness to our rebirth,
Buoyed on a sea of pristine air,
Draws a dark stain across the indifferent earth.

[truckerjean 0]

Hi, Mike!

I actually read this yesterday, just before work, and I was speechless. I still am; this is really lovely. You are an amazing writer and poet.
I am blessed by your presence here - thanks.

Blessings to you and yours,
jeannie

can I borrow a jump ticket real quick?

[MikeJD 0]

Aw, thanks Jeannie. I was afraid nobody liked it at all! Parts of this I've been kicking around for months, and it was only when I saw you'd revived the thread with some more of your own writing (which I also really like!) that I forced myself to knuckle down and finish it off. So thanks for the kick in the pants!

I'm still not completely happy with it:

- I think it's a bit too disjointed, thematically and rhythmically.

- The word 'spit', while I think it's quite a good one to describe a jump plane disgorging its load, is ugly in this context. However I couldn't resist the rhyme!
- I really wanted to make the whole thing more elliptical. I've been trying to come up with an early image to contrast against the final line, but everything I thought of sounded clichéd or corny so I gave up. I love poems and lyrics that come full circle somehow, like this song (originally by Talk Talk, for all you young Gwen Stefani fans!) It looks like really simple stuff - but the way the second verse and bridge mirror the first, and words are rhymed across verses, I think is pop genius. Um, like most lyrics these look a bit trite written down. It works better if you hear the song (just make sure it's the original version!)

It's My Life
(Mark Hollis / Tim Friese-Greene)

[VERSE]
Funny how I find myself
In love with you
If I could buy my reasoning
I'd pay to lose

One half won't do

[BRIDGE]
I've asked myself how much do you
Commit yourself?

[CHORUS]
It's my life
Don't you forget
It's my life
It never ends

[VERSE]
Funny how I blind myself
I never knew
If I was sometimes played upon
Afraid to lose

[BRIDGE]
I'd tell myself what good you do
Convince myself

[CHORUS]
It's my life
Don't you forget
It's my life
It never ends

[truckerjean 0]

unfurls
and hurls??

no, that's not right either ha!...oh, well, you'll tease it for awhile, I'm sure, but I think it's just perfect as is. :)

can I borrow a jump ticket real quick?

[truckerjean 0]

Quote

Aw, thanks Jeannie. I was afraid nobody liked it at all! Parts of this I've been kicking around for months, and it was only when I saw you'd revived the thread with some more of your own writing (which I also really like!) that I forced myself to knuckle down and finish it off. So thanks for the kick in the pants!

I'm still not completely happy with it:

- I think it's a bit too disjointed, thematically and rhythmically.

- The word 'spit', while I think it's quite a good one to describe a jump plane disgorging its load, is ugly in this context. However I couldn't resist the rhyme!
- I really wanted to make the whole thing more elliptical. I've been trying to come up with an early image to contrast against the final line, but everything I thought of sounded clichéd or corny so I gave up. I love poems and lyrics that come full circle somehow, like this song (originally by Talk Talk, for all you young Gwen Stefani fans!) It looks like really simple stuff - but the way the second verse and bridge mirror the first, and words are rhymed across verses, I think is pop genius. Um, like most lyrics these look a bit trite written down. It works better if you hear the song (just make sure it's the original version!)

It's My Life
(Mark Hollis / Tim Friese-Greene)

[VERSE]
Funny how I find myself
In love with you
If I could buy my reasoning
I'd pay to lose

One half won't do

[BRIDGE]
I've asked myself how much do you
Commit yourself?

[CHORUS]
It's my life
Don't you forget
It's my life
It never ends

[VERSE]
Funny how I blind myself
I never knew
If I was sometimes played upon
Afraid to lose

[BRIDGE]
I'd tell myself what good you do
Convince myself

[CHORUS]
It's my life
Don't you forget
It's my life
It never ends

Do you mind if I post this on my FB page (with your due credits, of course), I really like how it kind of sums up the feeling and emotion of that waiting and the release of flight. I think it should be shared outside this forum - as is. Let me know.
Jeannie

can I borrow a jump ticket real quick?

[kallend 2,105]

Quote

Quote

Can you relay any of the bonfire stories? I even tried googling "the phantom tenth man," and nothing came up!

Ah, well - I think he introduced it as The Ballad of Flying Fred, or some such title.!

If you want a ballad, there's always the Ballad of Eskimo Nell (reputed to be by Noel Coward).

homepages.tcp.co.uk/~nicholson/eskimo.html:

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[shah269 0]

I hate the words on my lips
I fear the echo of my breath
the tingling of my fingers
between heaven and earth i hang
begging for answers i sing
under my gray wings in the infinite I hang
I spiral down chasing my fears
for answers that never come
unlike the blood that flows from my pen
the ground comes as the night tide
pulling on my bones
stealing my moment.

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[shah269 0]

You don't deserve peace
not a moment of rest
you deserve all the burns you get
flew too close to the sun and tasted it's flame
thinking time and luck would be on your side
but the slings and arrows found your hide
you don't deserve hot tea or soft bread
choke on the salt waters and feel the stones in your bed
you don't deserve peace
go
go twist and turn with the dark thorns in your bed.

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[shah269 0]

Quote

You can't imagine how true this rings in my perimenopausal state. Yes you can, you wrote it. Amazing, Shah!

Thank you I'm very happy that you enjoy what I have written.
But I can't help but wonder what some think of me pre and post reading?

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[MikeJD 0]

Quote

But I can't help but wonder what some think of me pre and post reading?

Well, I doubt you'll ever win over your detractors. But for what it's worth, I think "He's a poet, but he doesn't show it."

I think your stuff here, and the very funny "Dr. Shah" threads from a while back, have done a lot to round out your online persona. Definitely a good thing.

[MikeJD 0]

Quote

Do you mind if I post this on my FB page (with your due credits, of course), I really like how it kind of sums up the feeling and emotion of that waiting and the release of flight. I think it should be shared outside this forum - as is. Let me know.
Jeannie

Hi, Jeannie. Did you get my PM? The answer is yes, of course!

[truckerjean 0]

HI, MIke! Oops! Sorry - yes I did get it! Thanks! I have been so busy moving in the middle of a really difficult (to me, anyway...Math, ich) class, and I lost track of what I was about for a second! I posted it just now as a note. I will PM you w/ my FB info:) You have to friend me to see it...
Thanks again,
Jeannie

can I borrow a jump ticket real quick?

[skykatherine 0]

I love this Jimmy T!