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Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.
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16. The Panama Canal
PRANK
Snow is falling --
a mid-April joke
not meant to do real harm --
just a jest,
a parody of the pollen
that will soon sneeze up the air.
Bright green grass grins
through the dusting of snow.
Magnolia blooms chuckle
under caps of white.
Daffodils sigh,
sorry to be gone so soon.
Muffler and mittens snicker
at shivering shorts-wearing Springsters.
Forsythia half-heartedly bloomed
only just last week.
Everyone knows her punchline is
one more snow.
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014
Yeah, I know. That poem has exactly nothing to do with the Panama Canal. But it's the poem I wanted to write, and it's the poem I wrote, and there aren't enough hours in the day to write another.
Yesterday I didn't get Carol's poem in two voices for the Itaipu Dam linked in, nor Kevin's flowchart poem for the Delta Works. Be sure you check them out. Both are amazing in their own unique ways.
Carol's poem for the Delta Works is here, and Kevin's Panama Canal poem is here.
It's interesting because reading your poem, even though it is off-kilter from the topic, is fascinating because it had me thinking: what was she thinking as she wrote this even though Panama Canal was on her mind? It's like giving a poem a title that has nothing do with the poem, and asking readers to find the connections. Even if, as you write, there are no connections ... I searched for them.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, here is my ee cummings-inspired poem today:
http://dogtrax.edublogs.org/2014/04/16/wonder-poem-and-a-canal-between-us/
Kevin
Mary Lee, I liked the April Fool'sness of this poem with a title that doesn't match the content. And I completely understand when you write one poem when another poem was to be written.
ReplyDelete“On Building the Panama Canal”
ReplyDelete(or parenting, or probably a lot of other things)
When I started this journey
it seemed
as if the trip
would be relatively easy
I envisioned
hard sweat
followed by
triumphant breakthroughs
cheering crowds
congratulatory celebrations.
I did not realize
the jungles would be so thick
the swamps so deep and strong sucking
Bubonic-ridden rats
so very large and fearless
When I started this journey
And I did not know there would be so much decay
That machines that once seemed impervious
could be reduced to rusty flakes
in a matter of months
I did not realize there would be so much
malaria of body
mind
spirit
When I started this journey
I did not realize
people would come and go
so quickly.
I did not know friendship was so cheap
or compromise so expensive.
I did not know souls
could be bought for a dime or a quarter
When I started this journey,
I did not realize there would be
So much sailing bravely forward
followed by waiting endless hours
for water
controlled by others
to rise.
And I did not realize times of ascent
and smooth sailing
would be so quickly followed
by times of descent.
That I would so often find myself in deep water,
or with my head under water
that so much water
would need to go
under the bridge
When I started this journey
it seemed
as if the trip
would be relatively easy
(c) Carol Wilcox, 2014
Love your poem and especially this "Muffler and mittens snicker at shivering shorts-wearing Springsters."
ReplyDeleteAlso the whole notion of a "prank" that is a great frame for April weather foolery!