Apple Wine, Bitter Greens
You gave me apple wine and bitter greens
a highwire hawk who'd learned to trick the sky,
a line of lakes where the white moon hid her gleams
in cups of apple wine and bitter greens,
in fantasies, daydreams and guillotines
til we were just a wildfire burning dry
drunk on apple wine and parched of green,
two highwire hawks who thought we'd tricked the sky.
February 2022
posted for
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dVerse Poets Poetics:
Images: Evening at Volga, 1888, ©Isaac Levitan Public Domain
Courting Redtails, 2008 ©Gouldingken via wikimedia commons Fair Use
"Bitter Green" is one of my favorite Lightfoot songs, one I for a long time identified with very much. This poem has a whiff of Whitman in it, and the idea of tricking the sky (!) is a master stroke, especially as it changes in the second iteration. Who is being fooled, and by whom, here? I want to say that we all fool ourselves and each other a bit, in relationships. I may in fact be the majorette of the Fools' Day Parade, with my track record. But that is to miss the beauty of your poem, the swoop and softness of it, even as it juxtaposes daydreams and guillotines, a remarkable phrase indeed. This also brings to my mind the biblical notion of "new (April) wine", intoxication with all the thrill and bad judgement that entails. One without the other may be impossible, I think. We leap, we fly, we come down and deal. You've captured something broad here despite the personal nature of the poem. Brava, my friend.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Shay. Bitter green is one of his most haunting songs in some ways. Sometimes it's more grueling to revisit the past than it was to make it, as here.
DeleteReally out of my element following Shay’s review … suffice to say your poem touched me, in a deep way, a lovely write, Joy.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Helen. I loved how much you did in your own poem with just one sentence.
DeleteI also like that song Bitter Green. We always think we can trick the sky. First time hearing, "The Watchman's Gone." I do love me some Gordy.
ReplyDelete"...whatever I was, you know it was all because/I been on the town, washin the bullshit down." Thanks, Li.
DeleteA peculiar brunch for sure, in certes memorable; but the music of what is emerges from a wheezy off-tune hurlyburly and sings its own damn way - "in cups of apple wine and bitter greens,/in fantasies, daydreams and guillotines." Stevens is in the color of the tie-dye here though the jeans are Gordon's and the poem is fully your own. I read this as rueful that the subject can neither be fully embraced or rejected as these hawks are birds of a feral feather.
ReplyDeleteYes, revisiting the past has its pleasure, but also its little razor cuts and all those sharp pointy "what ifs." What happens when you undervalue affinity--a lot of alternate endings that leave you moulting regrets. Thanks for reading today, B.
DeleteI love the wistful feel this has! The line "tricked the sky" opens up even more. Some loves and times of our youth are makings of wonderful poetry! A gorgeous poem Joy!
ReplyDeleteThank you, dear Carrie.
DeleteThere's a splash of Romeo and Juliet for me - too like the lightning, which doth cease to be ere one can say "it lightened" - those fires that burn too bright, those birds that fly too high. Lovely use of repetition and variance of repetition.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sara. I love the repeating forms for that sort of choir they provide.
DeleteThis one really speaks to me! A most gorgeously potent write. 💝💝
ReplyDeleteThis is lovely write, with metaphors of all the things failing, and worse than leaving we sit there with our failed ambitions in the end.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading, Bjorn.
DeleteI see the sky will not be fooled
ReplyDeleteSuch beautiful imagery. and I love the repeated phrases that change slightly.
ReplyDeleteI love the 'highwire hawks' image: it sums up the situation you describe perfectly!
ReplyDeletethis has a "living in the moment" feel to it, and i stands out as it is held in contrast to the knowledge (that i presume is being implied) in the poem of "after the moment", enjoyed the moment knowing that "after the moment" is a whole other story, a different world. "tricking the sky" that's the perfect to describe it. well written joy, enjoyed this.
ReplyDeleteGL is my favourite artist and this song is so beautiful! This is such a wistful and soul stirring write. Revisiting past can be painful yet we keep doing it, raking the dead embers.
ReplyDelete