Like running in the sky it is,
Every windshield, a gateway to where else,
Slippery clean, ankle for to break,
As I leap from car to car.
In traffic such amusement...Much a movement? Much movement!
Seriously studying the streaking white lines, not for to sniff,
But rather defining the ground,
The ways forward as I bound,Forward as I away.
1999
What a great picture to go with this poem! I love the imagery and the play on words.
ReplyDeleteVery playful and full of punch. It has a wild youthful quality to it. I've read it 3 times now. "Defining the ground." I like this. My daughter used to jump on the roof of our VW bus naked. I don't know why I mention this, except your poem reminded me.
ReplyDeleteAubrie: Thanks Aubrie, I'm glad you liked it.
ReplyDeleteKass: Heya Kass, I don't know what she was feeling but in my imagination her feeling as she jumped on you vw bus parallels that of this poem in many ways. Incidentally, as a child I used to make-believe surf on my parents' Dodge Ram Van... Great fun! With clothes though... I would rather have a layer of fabric between squished bugs and skin. Do you know what your daughter was imagining?
I agree with Aubrie - the picture matches the words, the sense of distance and movement, white lines, and cars and highways and running. Wonderful, Alesa.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amusing poem, I love the imagery you paint with your words.;)
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words today.;)
xo
So carefree. Loved it. Reminded me of Kevin Bacon in 'Footloose'.
ReplyDeleteElisabeth: Thanks! The main problem with finding an illustration for this piece was that cars in jam, as they'd have to be to run on them, just conveyed the wrong feeling... So, I went with a picture with no cars...
ReplyDeleteHeya Zuzana, glad you had fun with this little bit of verse. It was originally supposed to be a performance piece. Hopping on a table at "I love runnign on cars" pretending to slip and fall off at "slippery clean", etc.
Oh, you're quite welcome! I was just expressing my appreciation. : j
Aloha Annie: You know what? I haven't actually seen footloose. I just brought it up with my significant other, and neither of us has! We've decided to give it a go. And yeah, even without having seen the movie, footloose and carefree are great descriptives for this piece! Thanks for getting it.
My daughter thought of the VW roof as a trampoline. A difficult one. I'm trying to remember how she got up there and I can't for the life of me figure it out. She was 4 or 5 years old. I'm going to have to call her now.
ReplyDeleteHaha... I can picture the scene. "I like bouncing on a van neatly parked. Like flying into the skies I leap..."
ReplyDeleteThis is such fun. It reminds me of Yoda, E.E. Cummings and a wonderful film I saw a few years ago called something like District 39, about street runners in, I think, Paris. Makes me want to run.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's high praise. To be able to remind you of yoda! Oh of E.E. Cummings too I suppose... ; j
ReplyDeleteBy street runners, do you mean parkour? Yeah you do! The movie is produced and written by Luc Besson, it's called District 13 in English (Banlieue 13). I haven't seen it (yet), but parkours glee is a lot like the feeling I'm expressing... If you've seen the first McGuire Spiderman movie, which I thought was mostly unremarkable except for the following, there's a scene that takes place just after he's discovered his powers, where he exults in swinging through city, that's is the feeling! Like riding your bicycle down a steep hill with your feet on the handlebar and your arms out at your sides... Wheee!
Running is fine and dandy but nothing tops flying. : j
See you in the blue skies.
That is exactly what I mean: parkours (I have a terrible memory) they almost do fly.
ReplyDeleteYou captured that feeling (Spiderman, flying) brilliantly.
In action movies and TV shows, sometimes you'll see a chase on the tops of cars. Usually it's a traffic jam and annoyed people yell, "Hey!" from inside the cars. I've always thought that looked like a lot of fun. Well, not the chasing part.
ReplyDeleteUnbound freedom... ; j
ReplyDeleteI think it would be fun too, but it would be even more fun to skip from building to building if that were physically possible. : j