Spring Wedding -- Andrew Motion

Guest poem sent in by Sally Canzoneri

(Poem #1675) Spring Wedding I took your news outdoors, and strolled a while In silence on my square of garden-ground Where I could dim the roar of arguments, Ignore the scandal-flywheel whirring round, And hear instead the green fuse in the flower Ignite, the breeze stretch out a shadow-hand To ruffle blossom on its sticking points, The blackbirds sing, and singing take their stand. I took your news outdoors, and found the Spring Had honored all its promises to start Disclosing how the principles of earth Can make a common purpose with the heart. The heart which slips and sidles like a stream Weighed down by winter-wreckage near its source - But given time, and come the clearing rain, Breaks loose to revel in its proper course. -- Andrew Motion

Note: By Andrew Motion, Britain's Poet Laureate, on the occasion of Prince
Charles's marriage to Camilla Parker-Bowles.

I heard a commentator on the radio this week say that if, as Samuel Johnson
said, second marriages are "the triumph of hope over experience," then
Prince Charles' and Camilla Parker Bowles' union is the exception, as this
is clearly a case of experience triumphing over hope.  Charles' wedding to
Princess Diana was the stuff of fairy tales, with a fairy tale vision of
glittering, easily won love.  This time the wedding is the stuff of real
life -- two rather homely, middle aged people who have made the kind of
mistakes that most people have made by the time they are middle aged.  At
the same time, there is a wonderful romance to this wedding in the way these
two seem to have been meant for one another all along, in the way their love
has endured through the years, and in Charles' determination to overcome
obstacles to finally make Camilla his wife.

The poet laureate is responsible for producing verse to mark events of
national significance.  I think Motion has done his job wonderfully in this
instance.  This is an intimate poem that has a tone of being spoken very
directly to the happy couple. It is more a lovely gift to the bride and
groom than a celebration of a state occasion. That, and the emphasis on
nature, seems appropriate for a wedding that was meant to be quiet and
private and a couple who, apparently, are happiest in the countryside. Yet,
this poem isn't only about Charles and Camilla. It could as easily have been
written for an ordinary, unfamous couple. In this poem, Motion has captures
and celebrates the special beauty of hard-won, real world love -- love that
is private and personal to each couple, whatever their social status.

Andrew Motion was appointed Poet Laureate in 1999 upon the death of Ted
Hughes.

Sally Canzoneri

[Martin adds]

When we ran Motion's "Regime Change" [Poem #1215], Brian Probert commented that

  I feel he has rather wasted what could have been a brilliant poem about
  the eternal violent nature of man to make a partisan statement about
  what, in historical terms is just a transient affair.

It is interesting, I think, to contrast the essentially universal nature of
today's poem with the slightly[1] more immediate tinge of "Regime Change" -
perhaps it is that loving couples are all alike, but each war torn nation is
war torn in its own way.

[1] but only slightly - I don't fully agree with Brian, though I see his point

martin

The Floor and the Ceiling -- William Jay Smith

Carrying on with our friendship and loss theme, here's a guest poem from
Sally Canzoneri

(Poem #1086) The Floor and the Ceiling Winter and summer, whatever the weather, The Floor and the Ceiling were happy together In a quaint little house on the outskirts of town With the Floor looking up and the Ceiling looking down. The Floor bought the Ceiling an ostrich-plumed hat, And they dined upon drippings of bacon fat, Diced artichoke hearts and cottage cheese And hundreds of other such delicacies. On a screen-in porch in early spring They would sit at the player piano and sing. When the Floor cried in French, "Ah, je vous adore!" The Ceiling replied, "You adorable Floor!" The years went by as the years they will, And each little thing was fine until One evening, enjoying their bacon fat, The Floor and the Ceiling had a terrible spat. The Ceiling, loftily looking down, Said, "You are the lowest Floor in this town!" The Floor, looking up with a frightening grin, Said, "Keep up your chatter, and you will cave in!" So they went off to bed: while the Floor settled down, The Ceiling packed up her gay wallflower gown; And tiptoeing out past the Chippendale chair And the gateleg table, down the stair, Took a coat from the hook and hat from the rack, And flew out the door -- farewell to the Floor! -- And flew out the door, and was seen no more, And flew out the door, and never came back! In a quaint little house on the outskirts of town, Now the shutters go bang, and the walls tumble down; And the roses in summer run wild through the room, But blooming for no one -- then why should they bloom? For what is a Floor now that brambles have grown Over window and woodwork and chimney of stone? For what is a Floor when a Floor stands alone? And what is a Ceiling when the Ceiling has flown? -- William Jay Smith

I like this poem for a lot of reasons, including the mix of whimsy and
seriousness.  I loved the poem as an adolescent, and find that children in
my classes also love it.  There is a lovely way that Smith gets you hooked
on what seems to be a whimsical story and then makes the point about the
carelessly broken friendship with such simple eloquence in the last stanzas.
The "flew out the door" stanza brings the poem to an emotional peak and
captures that almost euphoric "I don't need you! You'll see!" feeling that
people get in arguments.  Then the quiet last stanzas show the cost of that
anger.

Sally Canzoneri

Links:

  An excellent critical essay on Smith
    http://www.danagioia.net/essays/esmith.htm

  The current theme:
    [broken link] http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/collections/42.html

Nicholas Cricket -- Joyce Maxner

Guest poem submitted by Sally Canzoneri:

(Poem #686) Nicholas Cricket Nicholas Cricket plays every night in the Bug-a-Wug Cricket Band. Moonlight glows and summer wind blows, rabbits come dancing on tip-tippy toes. The music is just so grand! Nicholas Cricket plays with all his might in the Bug-a-Wug Cricket Band. Little Lake shines and Little Stream winds, peep-peep-peepers come dancing through the vines. The music is just so grand! Nicholas Cricket is a banjo picker in the Bug-a-Wug Cricket Band. Crickets play fiddles and guitars with middles curvy and round as a rantum riddle and ducks come dancing ducky-hey-ducky-diddle. The music is just so grand! In the blue blue night when the moon is bright underneath the leaves of summer if we're quiet and quick we can find Cricket Nick and the washboard strummers and the slap-a-spoon drummers and the crick-crick-crickety kazoo hummers. We can dance all night 'til the rosy dawn comes. The music is just so grand! Ladybugs strut and toads sashay, moths and mantises wing their way, snap-turtles swing and grasshoppers sway while Nick and the crickets just play and play. The music is just so grand! All the Bug-a-Wugs grow sleepy and still and go back with the moonlight under the hill. Back to the trees the peepers pop, back to the hollow the rabbits hop, back to the willows the weary ducks waddle and back to our beds our tired legs toddle to dream as Little Stream winds its way into tomorrow. The music was just so grand! The music was just so grand! The music was just so grand! -- Joyce Maxner

"Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey" put me in mind of "Nicholas Cricket", a poem that
also celebrates the joys of an all night jazz session. The poem is the text
of a children's book with wonderful illustrations by William Joyce, but the
poem can stand on its own. Joyce's illustrations have the look of one of
those elegant thirties movies, with the band playing in the kind of night
club Nick and Nora Charles would frequent.

I grew up in rural Vermont where the summer nights are full of the sounds of
insects and animals.  Part of what was so delightful about the nights in a
place like that is the sense that a wonderful show is going on out there in
the night, and that you can sneak in on the performance if you sit still and
listen.  Maxner captures that, as well as the delight of being swept up in a
great jam session.

I don't know more about Maxner, other than this book.  Like all really good
"picture books" this one is as enjoyable for adults as it is for children
and is one that you can read aloud over and over without growing tired of
it.

Sally Canzoneri.