Thursday, August 21, 2003

From the Skerry

The image for today's card also comes from Elsie. It's about 14 sec. down-load, and I think it's worth it.

Elsie tells me the poem is very sensual. I woke up thinking about my spiritual grandfather, Walt Whitman, and wanted to try to write in his style. Not sure I entirely succeeded, but I did manage to work in one of his compound words.

Turns out that Elsie is a little jealous of this "colleen" who keeps popping up on my fictitious skerry. Guess a word of explanation is in order.

About a month before Elsie and I met, folk on the Poetry Espresso e-list were having a discussion about what books & records they'd take to a desert island. Well, the deeper I thought about what I wanted on my island, the more I decided a library boat would be required. From there, my fantasy just grew.

Having been fascinated by things Irish since my pre-teens, I decided I wanted my desert island to be an Irish skerry — my limited knowledge of which is summed up in John Sayle's movie The Secret of Roan Innish. As I say, I developed this fantasy before Elsie & I met, so I wanted to include a nice Irish lass on the island. My puckish sense of humor inspired me to name said fantasy Irish lass "colleen" — from Gaelic cailin meaning a young girl.

It's been said that virgins write the best porn. I suspect folk who are in a happy relationship may write the best sensual poetry. Well, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

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