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An Appeal
I want to be a fiber on your loom,
A constant fixture in your living room,
A luscious morsel that you save for last.
It’s time for us to build a solid past,
If only to secure a firm foundation
Where we can play it loose and found a nation
That’s sprung directly from our very loins
Like flowers where a stream the meadow joins.
Admit it now: Our bond would be unique
And make us glad to turn the other cheek,
And you, my dear, need only be yourself,
No brittle figurine upon my shelf
Along with all my other gimcrack treasures.
Imagine, now, the salutary pleasures
Our union would so amply guarantee,
Should we engage in brisk monogamy.
.
.
C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden. Hundreds of his poems have appeared in scores of print and electronic journals out of North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Australia and India. His collection, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder was published in 2013 by White Violet Press.
This perfect sixteen-liner brought a smile to my face. It has a racy and seductive feel, but is clearly an offer of marriage. I’m reminded of the exchange between Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in “North by Northwest,” when she says to him “Is that a proposition?” and he replies “No honey, it’s a proposal.”
A couple would certainly need “brisk monogamy” if they wanted an entire nation to spring from their loins.
Kip Anderson never disappoints.
I don’t recall those lines, Joseph, but I loved that film. Just to set the record straight, I think I did disappoint a woman or two — no nations founded there.
A good opening line, like what you have here, always keeps me reading.
That’s something to bear in mind, Cheryl: Start fast and finish what you started.
C.B., I love your unique take on love. I’m with Cheryl on the opening line. In fact, the opening four lines are superb and had me hooked. I like Joe’s “swift monogamy” observation, and I’ve never seen “North by Northwest”… I’m sold. My favorite line is: “It’s time for us to build a solid past” – a beautiful Valentine’s gift. Thank you!
Maybe, Susan, I’ll show it to my wife, but, dadgum it, I have only two children.
‘Like flowers where a stream the meadow joins’ is my favorite line C.B. A lovely poem for Valentine’s Day. Thank you.
I’m especially glad, Norma, that you didn’t mind the syntactic inversion in the line you quoted. Meadows can be dry, but most flowering plants will thrive where there is an influx of water.
C.B. My wife and I very self-consciously did all we could to build a past for our three daughters, a past they now treasure as adults. We didn’t use that exact phrase, of course, so you can still rightly and proudly hold copyright on it. It’s a great phrase.
Happy V’s Day to you.
Thanks to persons like you, James, I am always building a past. I hold no copyrights other than those my editors grant me.
CB, there is so much to enjoy with this when brisk monogamy is certainly out of fashion these days.
Thank you for a quite touching, and heart-warming read.
There are still a few backwater counties in the U.S. where brisk monogamy is practiced.
I agree with the above comments and thank you for your lovely Valentine’s day poem.
Thanks so much, Allegra.
C.B., this poem is a joy to read. I’m tickled by the imagery which inflates from a mere fiber on a loom into nationhood springing from their loins. That’s a pretty big contrast! I especially enjoy your use of heroic couplets which emphasizes the epic nature of this love and which links the present to that solid past. But it veers back from the epic into the intimate and homely as you talk about this is not an epic. It’s a love poem which begins and ends with a marriage proposal. It’s stunning.
I suppose that it’s true, Brian, that every man hopes that his marriage will in some sense be dynastic. I’ve settled for watching a few grandchildren grow up. Empirical facts do not really require an empire to validate them. What if I had written: I want to be a letter in your word? or, Just let me be a word inside your sentence?
C.B., I love the lines:
“Where we can play it loose and found a nation
That’s sprung directly from our very loins”
What a delightful contrast against modern culture’s view of children as a killer of married love. The world needs more love poetry like this. Bravo!
Thanks, Joshua. I don’t pretend to know what the world really needs, but being a grandfather certainly engenders thoughts, ideas and wishes in regard to the future of this world.
Very clever with an interesting theme, well written and articulate.
Let it be as you say, D.P.
C.B., I thoroughly enjoyed your Valentine’s Day poem. My favorite line is “Where we can play it loose and found a nation” – a worthy ambition.
Indeed, David. I hear that there is still a lot of empty space in Australia, so someone needs to get on with it.
“Every man hopes his marriage will in some sense be dynastic.” Your reply to Brian above reflects, from a masculine point of view, what I was thinking about as I read the nation-founding line. It’s a good thing to include explicitly in a marriage proposal, because girls and women often fantasize number and names of children when they feel attraction to a man, even before there’s a date. But I’ve rarely heard of the dynastic desire being expressed by a man to a woman, and thus the two sexes fail to get their dreams together. Maybe if there were just a little more openness on the wish (on both sides), there might be more brisk monogamy occurring.