I have changed the title to “A” ballad rather than “The” because I
realise this poem is far from definitive, others may write their own ballads of
the same subjects, also I may try again. Clearly also, the first stanza owes
something to LP Hartley’s:
“The past is another country; they do things differently there.”
I would like to thank RR (formerly known as LDP) http://ldptonedeaf.blogspot.co.uk/
and LK http://box-elder.blogspot.co.uk/ for their encouragement and support for the
idea behind this ballad, which is I hope a beginning of something more…
Sitges is a town famous for its Bohemian atmosphere and long beach
on the Costa Dorada https://www.onthebeach.co.uk/destinations/spain/costa-dorada/sitges
Finally here is a link to Joe’s book of sonnets Handbook for Explorers with photographs
by Lucy Kempton. It is a deluxe colour edition. A beautiful book visually and aurally
http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/3030400-handbook-for-explorers A second more affordable edition for the
pocket or bag may soon appear…
A Ballad of
Heidi and Joe
First we
must draw a country of the mind,
its maps and
contours, pictures; then agree
to go there.
If it’s anywhere we’ll find
the
explorer’s life, it’s in another country,
a country
with a Sitges and an August sea
and with a
Tunbridge Wells where they’re content
walking both
together on the pavement.
Who swam the
furthest, talked the most, was thinner,
understood
people best is hard to know;
who could
divine an animal’s agenda,
some would
say Heidi, some that it was Joe.
It is a
fact: until just a while ago,
not as some
couples, one leader, one behind,
they walked
both together on the pavement,
crossed over
to the sand and breathed sea air.
Their
sufferings and illnesses seemed past;
the future
like a strong and rusty stair
led upwards
to a landscape set to last;
they did not
know its light was fading fast;
the past in
front of them, their present was behind,
walking both
together on the pavement.
Whole
stories hide here; pictures stun with colour;
trees ebb
like tides at night, by day a-buzz
with
multiples of wing and throat. A cooler
and glasses,
Ipad, he waits to greet us
with maps
and plans, and later on he’ll tweet us
with routes
that he and Heidi have in mind
walking both
together on the pavement,
as if we too
with root and flower could stay
unmindful of
the assassin, changeless summer,
within the
panorama of this day;
not noticing
the sky’s not getting dimmer,
nor
fireflies by right begin to glimmer.
Our shadows
lengthen, leave them both behind,
walking both
together on the pavement.
10 comments:
One can see them still, though never did I meet them. Lovely.
Thank you Ken, so much.
Ken: I read it through and was left with a repeated effect I needed to track down. It didn't take long; it was of course the word "they" (or "their" or "them"). Interspersed with "he" and "she" but returning to that insistent third person plural. A common enough word, simple too, but they're always the best if you can make them work for you, This you did.
I'd seen the closeness of their deaths as tragic and it remains that way for them. For us, though, the closeness allows us to think of them as a unity as well as individuals and you have seized on this for your wending journey.
It was apt that there should be a hint of dispute, (Who swam the furthest, talked the most...) since it was a partnership based on amicable disagreement among other things. That had to be there.
The tone is gentle but the characters are three-dimensional if not four-dimensional. And they exist in a combined location. They are recognisably my friends and you remind me - in an elegiac way - about what I'm missing. I couldn't have asked for better.
This ballad is musical and comforting.
Beautiful! I can still see them together, just as we saw them in their home in 2009, and will always see them that way. Thank you so much for this.
I didn't know Joe but almost felt I'd met him through his appearances in blogs I read regularly, such as Lucy's, Marja-Leens'a and Roderick's. So I very much appreciate your poem, Ken, and offer my sincere condolences for the loss of your brother and friend and of his soul-mate Heidi.
Brilliant. A perfect finish to Lucy's tale of going and being there.
I think I started reading Mr.H's blog in 2012. The day I saw Sitges mentioned and ever since I ask myself if maybe I crossed the couple's path in 2001.
I am thinking of magic in the air during their strolls.
What a wonderful response and gathering of comment! Joe and Heidi would have greatly appreciated it and I am most moved.
Tom, Many thanks. That there is a sense in which Joe and Heidi appear or are seen in the poem is what I had hoped.
Lucy, Many thanks for your insights and encouragement to go ahead.
Robbie, The "he" and "she" and "they" aspect is something that developed with the compression of the form. I like what you say about the closeness of their deaths allowing us to find them as a "unity".
Thanks also for helping me to think about the ballad form.
Rouchswalwe, it is great to hear your comment: musical and comforting seems to reflect the concept of a ballad.
marja-leena - thank you for reading and responding so favourably. The idea of still "seeing" them is I think what I hoped for.
Natalie - thank you so much for your reading and understanding, through the magic of blogging, and communication. Joe and Heidi would have recognised and appreciated this greatly.
Sidney - Many thanks. Reading your comment makes me realise how valuable a set of blogs can be.
Ellena - your references to "Mr H" are most touching, and even though I have never been to Sitges, I too can sense the magic in the air.
SEASON'S GRATITUDE (Because the familiar phrases at this time of year don't work for me.)
For being a mainstay in my attempts to write verse.
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