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Saturday, April 9, 2011

Wherever She Goes


Lady Grey created a stir 
 rode in on a windy steed. 
 In silver bag she carried ideas 
 greater than oaks but 
smaller than seeds. 

 Lady Grey blew into town 
with frenzied and fervent creations. 
 The metaphors thundered, 
 the words awoke, 
 the similes sighed, 
 soft alliterations. 

 High up in the calligraphed sky 
 clouds formed stanzas. 
As she rode cobbles 
on jaunty side saddle 
verses jangled at her side.

Ancient rimes worn to clichés 
 reformed themselves 
 in rhythmic strides. 

 Lady Grey came to town
 riding a windy steed 
 for nothing she witnessed 
 went without heed. 

 Around her fingers, 
 from head to her toes, 
song and poetry 
 wrapped her like clothes. 

 (c) Gay Reiser Cannon * 2011* All Rights Reserved
A play on the nursery rime:
Ride a cock horse
To Banbury Cross
To see a great woman
Upon a white horse
With rings on her fingers
And bells on her toes
She shall have music
Wherever she goes.


17 comments:

  1. Oh this is glorious! Such skill with the trotting rhythm, I felt like I was bouncing along on the steed myself. I love the extended metaphor... of course, what writer wouldn't?

    High up in the calligraphed sky
    Clouds formed stanzas....

    It really doesn't get better than this!

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  2. i like Lady Grey tea...amiles. everywhere she goes poetry flows...nice...loved the feel of this piece gay...

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  3. beautiful words! lovely flow.

    thank you for your helpful guidance on my haiku today.
    take care!

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  4. I like it, Gay--some very good imagery and a neat but loose structure, a fine ride through the creative process and an excellent tribute to the muse, whoever she may be, with her silver bag of ideas and her windy steed.

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  5. Lovely images... interesting piece creating a unique feel. I especially liked the lines:

    High up in the calligraphed sky
    Clouds formed stanzas.

    Love the feel of possibilities there.

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  6. A play on "ride a cock horse" rhyme, in one sense, but I hear a stylish parody of Lady Guidiver and her famous ride! Very creative and clever!

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  7. Charming. I especially enjoyed the calligraphed sky.

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  8. clever...this was really enjoyable...and lady grey always gets a nod from me,,,cheers for taking part..pete

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  9. I was trying to be "different". I don't know if I succeeded because I always think I'm doing something different. I just read Jenne's poem that said we write the same poem over and over again. LOL. I guess I'm always writing and rewriting nursery rhymes. They certainly recur in my thoughts a lot along with the Brothers Grimm. Those must have been powerful influences or the only books I had to read for a long while, or both.

    In a way I guess I see them as Brendon does the myths...no, that's just my excuse for not having steeped myself in those classic myths to the extent he has. Nevertheless, over time one does come up with one's own set of symbols..mine are light, glass, reflections, roses, and music. So maybe I should have added music in the penultimate line. Just wondering.

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  10. Thank you to those of you who came by and stayed to comment. It's always much appreciated.

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  11. I love the rhythm of this poem and such wonderful words! I especially loved "she carried ideas
    greater than oaks but smaller than seeds." Great!

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  12. I love this. What a brilliant piece. A great poem to read aloud, it bounces in my head.

    One quick question. Where did you get the Banbury Cross rhyme? Round here it is always 'To see a fine lady' rather than 'To see a great woman'. I am always curious about the way these things change from area to area.

    I was waiting for yout second prosery article this week :( Will it be coming soon? I am still getting my feet tangled.

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  13. Horses everywhere! I take much more comfort and solace in your Lady Grey with her bag of tropes and eyes and fingers wired back to the oldest tales of the tribe. She's as much folklore here, a magical figure which bestows the boon of poetry to us all. I think she here is the light upper half of the same figure I've been writing through; both share a saddle of power which we sit in when we write, for better and for iil -- though who are we to know of which we write, which is an illusion or distortion, is wrapped up with the better or verse parts of our history? I think that's why we keep going back to 'em, trying to get a fresh vantage, a new shape and flow. The archetypes are in our deep inner ear, how could we not try to name them in our most fey imaginings? This poem has life and wonder to it. The I Ching represented Spring as the Awakening Thunder, and Lady Grey's arrival brings fresh wonders to Beachanny's page ... Suh-weet. - Brendan

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  14. Dear Penny,
    Yes I think in two weeks. Annie's work on Shadorma was scheduled prior to my taking over Form Mondays. I may do two more articles on prosody. I would like to concentrate on trochee/dactyl one week, and I also want to talk a little about rhyme, assonance, half rhyme, caesura, spondees, and the question of an English pyrric foot. Claudia has upcoming articles with Sam Peralta and Luke Prater I believe. I know we will be looking at sonnets soon. So I will work around those dates. I don't want to bore everyone with the exposition of prosody. Down the road I want to explore free verse and why it is free verse.

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  15. Dear Brendan
    Thank you so much for your note on this piece. I felt it very satisfying to write it because while rhyming a little and having a kind of bouncing rhythm, it's still satisfies my needs. I like freedom (I think you guessed at that) and I like classic poetry (the way you love myth, I suspect). I know I'm not as diligent a student as you, but I love the way we connect. Thank you for taking an interest in my work. Yours always feeds my imagination and makes me want to write more and better. Gay

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  16. Dear Penny re Banbury Cross - I didn't look it up, that's the way I remember it from my childhood copy of Mother Goose. I think I've read it the way you quote it too. I gave the grandchildren copies of Mother Goose when they were small. Don't know if it was read to them or not. They don't seem to have much memory of them. Harry Potter seems to have supplanted the earlier lore. LOL.

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  17. More re Banbury Cross http://www.rhymes.org.uk/ride_a_cock_horse.htm two references..both say
    "a fine lady"
    This from Wikipedia: A "Cock Horse" can mean a high-spirited horse, and the additional horse to assist pulling a cart or carriage up a hill. From the mid-sixteenth century it also meant a pretend Hobby horse or an adult's knee.[2]

    Despite not being present or significantly different in many early versions, the fine lady has been associated with Queen Elizabeth I, Lady Godiva, and Celia Fiennes, whose brother was William Fiennes, 3rd Viscount Saye and Sele (c. 1641-1698) of Broughton Castle, Banbury, on the grounds that the line should be 'To see a Fiennes lady'. There is no corroborative evidence to support any of these cases.[2]

    I must confess I was told it was a stick horse and not a stallion. I like the QE1 story though. I think I'll keep that.

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