We can’t resist the urge to shout aloud
when well-known places flit across the screen,
familiar faces spotted in the crowd
of extras with the actors in between.
We’re so superior because we know
that Harry Kelly’s Cottage can be seen
by driving to Niarbyl, even though
you’re now supposed to park behind the rail
in case it gets too crowded down below
with tourists on the film location trail.
We take our guests from England to Cregneash,
delighting in the church, the farm, the bale
of hay strategically placed. The beach
invites us, tempts our visitors to swim
although the pebbles make it hard to reach
the waves. Instead, we pick up stones and skim
them, laughing madly till the light grows dim.
Joan is a teacher of French and Head of Year in a Secondary School on the Isle of Man. She would love to be a ’published’ poet — in print that is.
loading...
14 Responses to “WAKING NED DIVINE ON THE ISLE OF MAN – A TERZA RIMA • by Joan”
Comments
« SHADES OF GREY • by Scott Neighbour | Home | CLICK! THINK QUICK • by Olivia Berrier »
January 28th, 2010 at 7:12 am
Good cadence, good rhyme, good pacing, good rhythm, but what I really like about this poem is the writer had something she really wanted to say.
January 28th, 2010 at 8:32 am
Ditto Roberta
January 28th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Not sure if the title relates to the poem..???
Echo #s 1 n 2
Cute…but only
4 ****
January 28th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Thanks! vondrakker…. the title is the title of a film made on the Isle of Man. If you saw the film, you’d see the relevance.
January 28th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Yes, agree with Roberta on the wonderful flow and fluidity of this piece. Enjoyed it! (and the film, too)
January 29th, 2010 at 2:46 am
Very nice, Joan.
January 29th, 2010 at 4:14 am
I love the sense of ownership of the islanders in this poem. The sense that you can only really ever know a place if you belong to it as it belongs to you. Beautifully encapsulated.
January 29th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Lovely, Joan! Well done.
January 29th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Oh! Excellent form. And yes! So much more important to see the real people on the screen, around the actors. I identified with this one, and I’ve never seen the Isle of Man.
January 29th, 2010 at 11:34 pm
Enjoyed this Joan, Nice poem.
Fehmida
January 30th, 2010 at 4:25 am
Thanks for the kind comments, everyone!
January 30th, 2010 at 8:35 am
I’m glad I didn’t miss this one. It’s such an assured piece of formal verse. Like a bloodhound I tried to sniff out rhyming lines that seemed forced, made even slightly awkward just to keep the rhyme going. A waste of time, I’m delighted to say – every single rhyming line is perfectly smooth and natural. But what I like most about the poem is the way its mood changes quite subtly. There’s excitement to begin with, the fun of seeing familiar places on film, but towards the end (after the passing disappointment of not being able to swim after all) there’s more than fun – there’s real joy. You have such a gift for writing about ‘ordinary’ experience in ways that make it extraordinary.
James.
January 30th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
James – thank you so much!! I really appreciate your response.
January 31st, 2010 at 8:15 am
Nancy – actors are real people too. I thought it meant interest in seeing that the crowd had some familiar faces along with the speaker’s crowd of superior people, the actors who also know where some Harry or other lives.