February 13, 2009
-
A V-day Poem
You saved my life, but that was just a start.
You taught me how to go through cruel to kind.
You healed the indignation in my heart
So savage, ‘fore it overthrew my mind.
Perhaps your most unique and trusty role
Is alpha dog in our eccentric pack.
In this you may not have great depth of soul,
But I know you’ll always have my back.
But long before the canid came the Cat,
Pussy-footing down the halls of time.
I followed you, as stealthy as a Rat,
Once more your lover, partnering in crime.
As so upon this consecrated day,
I thank you, dear, for showing me the Way.Author’s notes: English majors will recognize the poem as a classical Shakespearean sonnet, three quatrains and a couplet, iambic pentameter. I got most of the free verse poetry out of my system in college, one example of which got an Honorable mention in the Atlantic Monthly College Writing Competition (he added modestly). To me, writing free verse is like playing tennis without a net.
It is quite personal and idiosyncratic. The first quatrain has a Shakespearean allusion (I think), plus a reference to Jonathon Swift’s epitaph. The second refers to our multi-species household– a dog, many cats and three domesticated primates–and Susu is the alpha animal, the pack leader for sure. The third refers to one of our past lives–I hope she will say something about that.
In the couplet, “Way” is capitalized as a punning reference to the Tao.
Comments (6)
Something: In Elizabethan London, I was a woman of gentle birth, impoverished by my father’s death and reduced to practicing herbal medicine and simple surgery in the slums around the Globe Theater. They called me Cat, for Catherine. One night several rough citizens of the neighborhood brought to me a broken body they’d found dumped by the roadway. He was a gypsy, barely more than a boy, who had gone athwart the Rom Baru somehow and gotten beaten up and left behind. His name was Hrathgar and he became known as Rat. I nursed him through his wounds and he stayed with me until, some time later, I died in his arms.
Darlin’, it’s beautiful, and what’s more it rhymes and scans.
Across the top of your blog are words about what you write. Perhaps you could add: “With heart in mind.”
Lovely!
@SuSu - (sighs) Through the test of time our love stands fast and leaves us full and eager for more until again we find that same light.
how sweet.
Beautiful ~ Happy Valentine’s Day, I’m so happy you’re so happy!
That’s really cool!