Another proof that a poem is never completed.
I have always had fun playing around with this idea.
Mat, with all due respect, your rhymes are dreadful.
Alan Alda (Sat Mar 29, 2008)
I have worked on improving the rhymes a bit, but I'm not sure if it was successful.
Well I suppose I am a sensitive, slow learner. It has taken me 11 years to get over the above comment;
...but it was always meant to be a bit "tongue in cheek"; a dreamy Sunday set-up reverie sort of play-thing.
Maybe I forgot that for awhile...or maybe I just got lazy...
Sadly, only yesterday did I discovered that Bo Ho Judith is no longer with us. She was very kind to me (above) with her positive encouragement. In fact it was after learning of her "en passant" that I returned to this poem for a little reflection on our brief but happy encounter.
matj: This poem is utterly gorgeous. One of the finest I've read, IMO. I think Beckett, the Oresteia, O'Neill, The Lord's Prayer, St. Paul's "shipwreck," the glorious works. I'm thumbing through the index of my vividly gem-crammed thoughts wondering so many things. Ah, never mind; another time . . . Check, Mate!
BoHo
I would recommend that the title refer in some way to the thrill or the beauty of "the game" meaning the game of chess and the game of courtship. or a "chance encounter"?-taking a chance in chess and love? or a chase? or even checkmate? Jill
Well, I took up, at last, on Jill's ideas above and woke this morning with this dreamy solution for a title. I think it works beautifully.
en passant
Across the chequered board I stare
move a pawn, a bishop too
then catch a glimpse of you
across the Trojan seas. I sail
to Homer’s lands, classical lips;
the face that launched a thousand ships?
Across millenniums I float
lose a rook; a kingdom too!
could this be de-javu?
Across the crowded room you stare
I watch the board in solemn hush
did you see me blush
On Morphean seas? Once more I roam
Hellenic lands; romantic tales
weigh my anchor and loose the sails
upon the chequered board: I stare
past the scattered pawns on Aegean blue
...as only poets do.
Mat James