Poet’s corner

Last updated on June 10th, 2017 at 07:19 am

“This is the first of my rose poems,” writes Jess, who is bravely publishing poetry from her teenage years. “I have pages and pages of rose poems. Crap about getting cut by thorns, petals wilting, etc. etc. You know, like, really original stuff. Anyway, I didn’t put initials next to this one so I can’t be certain who inspired it, but most of my ‘love is pain’ poems were about my first boyfriend Satan, so I’m assuming this one is as well. It’s untitled … ”

A fool will nurse a dying rose
Believing the beauty will stay
Religiously, the vase is filled
As the petals fade away

Such fools will salvage a dying love
As if they do not know
That when hearts do slowly wither
Then the love will cease to grow

So true. So very, very true. Here’s some of my own anguished teenage verse:

I know that it gets good mileage
And has a reliable motor
But why, in 1983,
Do we own a ‘74 Toyota?

I called that one Sisyphus’ Boulder in Our Garage. Another, from my 1978 beatnik phase:

microwave oven, hummm, hummm
irradiate my food
with your high technology
you are only slightly smaller than the fridge
hey, there’s some wine in here …

There are more, but they mostly deal with the trauma of early love, and feature the usual cliches: “You told me it was over between you and the science faculty”, “Child maintenance? What the hell is ‘child maintenance’?”, “She broke my heart and badly scratched my Supertramp records”, etc.

(Via Sheila O’Malley)