Romance on Ice

Last night my husband and I were lounging on the couch and looking for something to watch since our usual Simpsons/Family Guy hour was smoked by football. We ended up watching ice dancing. The reigning champs, Meryl Davis and Charlie White danced to Billie Jean. I was so swept away by the pair, I had to check out their winning Phantom performance on you tube. Oh. My. God. It doesn't hurt, of course, that Charlie White bears an uncanny resemblance to my first celebrity crush...I'll leave that one up to your imagination rather than date myself too much... I'll definably be tuning in for the Olympics now & hoping to find some more inspiration for stories!

free verse refections

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

--William Carlos Williams

This poem infuriated me in high school; I wasn't much for subtleties. Lately, though, I find myself thinking about it from time to time. It has a beautiful simplicity, and a stark truth I never could have grasped then: we often take for granted the things most important. (Ever try and remove yard waste without a wheel barrow?) Those things most important we forget to honor, we leave in the rain, we fail to notice...at least until something contrasts with it.

Writing erotica has been the "white" to my "red"--the thing that made me notice things I've taken for granted...from the feel of a nylon stocking to the erotic possibilities of secret-sharing. It's a bit of a surprise, but not an unwelcome one.

And since I was appreciating subtleties, I decided to poke around the internet and read some other poets who infuriated me. I found this gem by ee cummings. (And I'm certain if this one was included in the anthology, I would have had ALOT more interest in free verse!)

i like my body when it is with your body.

It is so quite a new thing. Muscles better

and nerves more. i like your body. i like

what it does, i like its hows. i like to feel

the spine of your body and its bones, and

the trembling -firm-smooth ness and which

i will again and again and again kiss, i like

kissing this and that of you, i like, slowly

stroking the, shocking fuzz of your

electric fur, and what-is-it comes over

parting flesh . . . . And eyes big

love-crumbs, and possibly i like the thrill

of under me you quite so new

--ee cummings