Wings~
Deal with it
Deal with it
No one remembers Icarus flying
Any fool on the street can say how he fell,
tasting the burn, laughing and crying.
No one remembers Icarus flying.
Heaven’s the place you'll go after dying.
Everyone knows I'm going to hell.
No one remembers Icarus flying
Any fool on the street can say how he fell.
June 2011
*Thanks to Fireblossom for the inspiration for this title.
Posted for OneShootSunday at the inimitable OneStopPoetry
Photo: of Graffiti by Chris Galford, courtesy of OneStopPoetry
I figured you would ring in with this picture. Great words, so many just remember the end and not the process to get there or the split second that he achieved flight.
ReplyDeleteAnother great work, my dear! Always amazed by what you come up with!
Thank you LV. Always great to have a fly by from you. As it were.
ReplyDeleteGood use of repetive/progressive lines, overall good work.
ReplyDeleteAm not so sure that everybody knows... but for sure everybody tends to forget. And Icarus was just another fool, but he tried, at least he did try.
ReplyDeleteGreat poem, Hedgie. :-)
yes airborne is amazing
ReplyDeleteGood that we have you to taste the flying from the inside out, and tell us about it. We are so mesmerized by our end, we forget that every day is a beginning. I enjoyed the movement and sort of Burns-ian rhyme of this piece.
ReplyDeleteA libation indeed, a sip of that ole spooky juice that gave us wings to fly before it took away the sky. The eternal youth -- s/he's an archetype -- will never let us forget the joy of letting go and letting fly, of endless possibilities stretching far over drab suburbs below, of never having to grow up, like Peter Pan, flying in an endless afternoon of gaming and sexing and getting high high high. Such puerile fancies lift the libidoes of many aging men who never quite learned to properly walk on the ground. Icarus' dad had the job of driving the sun-car every day across the skies; Icarus, that eternal 16-year-old, stole the keys and went for a joyride that almost burnt the earth to cinders. For every comeuppance, a comedown; that's the old gods' law. Aw but how fine, for a brief eternal time, that boy's flight, soaring to a zenith not meant for us mortals. Like Jim Morrison, eh, or Jimi Hendrix, or Eric Clapton before his son fell from the sky. Wings fling eternal; thanx for the lift. - Brendan
ReplyDeletenice cohen tune...and you know for a moment he did fly...but of culture is about the fall, make us feel better to see someone crash and burn...that is what we remember...
ReplyDeleteYou wrote a short poem, Witch! And a dandy, too. In these days of celebrity culture and 24 hour news cycles, a well-known someone's thud on the ground is shown a thousand times over and discussed by talking heads ad nauseum. People love a crash. And when one comes, nobody cares much how that person came to be noticed in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThat said, Icarus was SUCH a guy.
(and I'm tickled that you used my little sidebar catchphrase!
Tight structured and very telling commentary. Flight being forgotten, most people recall the fall. "Everyone knows I'm going to hell." Great shift there—revealing in regard to audience as well as speaker.
ReplyDeleteThis was educational. I never knew my mythology well. He did fly...momentarily...indeed.
ReplyDeleteDear Hedgewitch: "Everybody knows" because it is a self-fufilling prophesy of mass-produced proportions to watch how far the fallen fall. How doombastic will it get for us even with or without "god" after our name?
ReplyDeleteso true for so many things in life..for so many people...they do an excellent job, have visions and dreams and then fall...and this is just what will be remembered....we shouldn't forget one single of those who once flew...
ReplyDeleteThanks all, and glad you enjoyed my little poem about assumptions. Your thoughts and input are always appreciated.
ReplyDelete@Ruth: Thanks. I like the triolet for the way it repeats but rings a change in a very few number of lines. I'm fond of Burns, actually, so that's another compliment.
@FB Exactly. Everyone cuts to the chase, no one wants to know the details unless they're part of the train wreck that they've come to drool over. RE: such a guy: No kidding--if it can be done, do it till you screw it up.
@B: Yes, the doomed flight is glorious and all,to me not because it's doomed, but because it didn't have to be. The assumption in the myth is that man shouldn't even go there because he can't handle it,he's too flawed, he's stealing a divinity that isn't his. To me that's always a bit of excuse-making, because it's in our nature to go there at least as much as it is to go too far and self-destruct. But it's much easier to turn away, because the fire is hot. So, if everyone turns away from dealing with the difficult in what we create, we end up here, in the anteroom of Armageddon. The eastern cultures make a big thing about balance--something the Greeks could have used, and our culture as well, I think. Thanks for reading.
Still always it is better to have tried... yet so often we do look and the end, without ever seeing the trials that took us there.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I read this title, hedgewitch, Shay popped into my mind. You're right - so often we're forgotten for what we accomplish and celebrated more for our failures - especially the epic variety.
ReplyDeleteGritty little poem with spit and spirit raising what becomes the myth and what doesn't
ReplyDeleteWe all have our moments of flying and falling...those of flying are the most important...forget the on lookers and naysayers...the beauty of accomplishment pulls us higher....nice rhyme...bkm
ReplyDeleteA flick of the wrist and she writes another tour d'force. Magical. I won't philosophize: absolutely no need to. xxxj
ReplyDeleteOkay, so first I was diggin the poem and what you had to say.... then, I scroll down and you've linked up one of my all time fave Cohen tunes, rock on! Nicely played, HW
ReplyDeleteLove the sass element to this, deserved to those that neglect the whole picture ;) Great write! ~Rose
ReplyDeleteWe do have a certain focus in that old myth, don't we? Rose is right - there's a sassy quality to this that just makes it sing. We narrow our eyes to the lessons we often want to see...and little Icarus certainly has been the butt of that tirade for many long years...short, potent message with a finely tuned voice. Another gem, my friend.
ReplyDeleteThe fall is the hardest part, when you've sat on the top for a while. Nice one, Joy. I love the LC video, he is one of my favourites!
ReplyDeletePamela
oh, I love it! the form is one of my favs and your words flowing through it like water - refreshing.
ReplyDeleteI really like this verse. It's so sadly true about the way the vulgar treat their superstars. "Everybody Knows" is one of my favorite songs; I love the way Concrete Blond perform it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reply to Brendan. My mythology is shaky; I googled, and read the poem over several times. So from your explanation I take away: "you're damned if you do, damned if you don't" - more or less. Trouble is I can accept that and overlay the christian teaching of forgiveness just for believing and fly high on the combo;)
ReplyDeleteI like the triolet, you do it so well.
Thanks, Ann. You prove we can bring our own balance to things if we try.
ReplyDeleteYEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! I love it. Such a unique perspective and so true; great analogy and commentary. One of the better POVs I've read on this prompt. And thanks for th visit to my page.
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome, Henry. Yours is one of the places I visit and never leave without feeling I've read real poetry. Glad you enjoyed this little triolet.
ReplyDelete