Prompt: A surreal photo called 'Mood Disorder' .
Things You Might Not Know About Me
In Summer I think of Spain and all things Spanish. I am enjoying peace and exquisite quiet (in ferocious summer heat) 500kms away from Sydney.It is a relief to be away from my nemesis
noisy neighbour Vlad the Impaler who is making life intolerable there with his tortuous piano pounding starting early in the morning hammering all day long.
The neighbour's dance (seguillidas) is the opening of 'The Three Cornered Hat' an orchestral
suite by Manuel De Falla.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind with a Three Legged Chair
Yes I recognise your sad seat
I've seen you through the balcony door opposite
when you were in one piece overwhelmed
by overweight mounds of cossack flesh
So,you think I look like a Spanish Conquistador with the hood
Odd you should say that, I've been feeling very Spanish these days
with De Falla's 'Three cornered Hat' theme spin cycling in my
seasonally spanish'd summer mind with its swoosh of taffeta
flaired flamenco skirts and sudden gusts of white hot breeze
awash with seguillidas, sangria, lemon sunshine and Salvador Dali
Now if he was still about he would have taken your leg
and used it as a moustache curler
I suspect that the mystery of your missing leg
could be attributed to a certain whiskered poet
friend of mine with a penchant for kiss curls
Sadly you finally fell apart
anchored down by the juggernaut's
vast bulk and persistent piano pounding
crashing to the floor
to the sledge hammering of Prokofiev
your fate now sealed
on a one way trip
to the rubbish dump
The impaler's lengthy hospital confinement
seems like rough justice
for a piano massacre
at the top end of the richter scale
and the destruction of a very nice chair
Whoopee the neighbours dance is in full swing
at the welcome thought of sleep and a
vibrating wall free zone
I owe you,mi tortilla espanola pequena dulce
I'll find a home for your three little legs
on my balcony and adorn you with
a lick of lavender polish and a
bright red geranium
Hi Rall,
ReplyDeleteI hope you have not swapped one troublesome neighbour for another. I love the spin-cycling, the swoosh of taffeta, the lick of lavender polish and bright red geranium. I won't ask about your poet friend. Strangely, Dali was my immediate thought when I saw the image.
Yes I have but it is a blessing in disguise.It will force us out for a while over to your neck of the woods for a meandering around Europe.Barbara has also written about a Spaniard with a moustache and you too evidently.I am really surprised.Why are we all writing about Spain?As we have never discussed kiss curls it couldn't possibly be you.Could it?
ReplyDeleteWhat a delightfully Spanish Idyll you paint here. Are you offering package tours for others to sample same?
ReplyDeleteOdd, isn't it? Wonder if other dalis will stop in and say hello. I suspect it is the landscape's flatness and that bloody ochre that brought him into my mind.
ReplyDeleteI love your take on it, and you're kind to give it lavender wax (!) and red geraniums.
Thanks Jinksy.I have an idea for a doco.Two old grumpy ladies do Spain on a motor bike.
ReplyDeleteI can't ride a bike but am ok in a sidecar.
So are you interested?
Yes briar cat it will be interesting to see how many others mention Dali.Lavender furniture polish was alive and well once.My
ReplyDeletegrandmother used to use it.Being of the flower power generation furniture polish never featured on my own agenda of good housekeeping.
You and that damn Russian!
ReplyDeleteQuite amazing how both you and barb had Spain or Spaniards on your minds!
It took me a minute to realize that it is, in fact, summer in the Southern Hemisphere. ;) But I totally dig your Hispanophilia, and I like how it suffuses the lines here. This is excellently executed, the images and sound devices you toss in there just work wonderfully together. Especially, "a piano massacre / at the top end of the Richter scale", awesome!
ReplyDeleteWell, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.. with Vlad in opposition..hard to know who to root for! Beware of melting clocks....
ReplyDeleteYes, I like your take on this as well...impaler keeps sticking in my mind, oh no pun was meant...just really a good one!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate having the back story for this poem. I also really like your use of color here.
ReplyDeleteyou have thoroughly imagined all the mysteries in that chair, and i'm thrilled by it!
ReplyDeletei especially love how it begins with the narrator staying he/she'd been watching already. i came to the image with the assumption that the chair was a surprise to the hooded man, but you put a different angle with it and i like it!
some wonderful lines here Ralllllllllll...don't kn ow my favorite..but...well I cant pick a favorite actually...cause I dont really like picking out favorites....Just enjoy it all....thanks for sharing this...cheers
ReplyDeleteI love this and I also love Salvadore Dali. Nice job!
ReplyDeletePamela
So pleased you got the Sviatoslav pun Joseph
ReplyDeletebut then again how many of us have sat in a
prie-dieu!
Glad you reminded me of the melting clocks Lyn
ReplyDelete..apart from the lobster telephone and Gala it's the only thing I like of Dali's. I used to have a friend who made these and sold them at the markets.I'd root for Vlad..he's bigger
definitely not better,and has a rhinocerous hide.
The verb 'root' in Australian venacular means to fuck so what I said above is meant in the American vernacular.Tourists who come here talking about rooting for things can get into trouble!
Cynthia I like Spain but I prefer Italian cellists on my .I cannot speak for Barbara
ReplyDeletewho is very secretive about what is in her mind.
The idea of an impaler sticking in a chef's mind is a good one!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it Wayne.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed this Madame Bovary.Now that's a novel I must get around to reading again.
ReplyDeleteThanks Carolee.Sorry I haven't commented on your poems but I'm intimidated by passwords
ReplyDeleteand all things of that ilk
signed
Cluddite
Yes! "awash with seguillidas, sangria, lemon sunshine and Salvador Dali" is wonderful in its sibilance, broad brushes of the inspirational photograph.
ReplyDeleteI thought Dali, too, because of the colors -- your poem helps the figures melt as they should.
Terrific imagery and color. A delightful read!
ReplyDeleteThankyou sweet Tumblewords.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautifully poetic comment Deb. Thankyou
ReplyDeleteRollicking humourous good read ...and I just like the final touch of the red geranium, Rall. You deal with your musical neighbours in verse don't you?-Irene
ReplyDeleteI deal with everything in verse Irene.
ReplyDeleteMy neighbour could not be classified as musical.It takes some degree of sensitvity to be musical.Red geraniums are nice aren't they?
from Therese Broderick - What a wild and wonderful imagination that weaves together so many strands of real life, art, music! When I first looked at the chair in the photo, its ribs and sheen reminded me of a musical instrument -- harp or cello or clarinet. So I'm glad someone wrote a musical poem about the image.
ReplyDeleteThanks Therese,music does seem to feature a lot in my poetry.
ReplyDeleteThe second and last verses draw me in. I wanted to be there.
ReplyDeleteWhai..thankyou my Sharona!
ReplyDeleteI like this! You took this to a bit lighter place than I did. It reminds me of the neighbors I've lived above or next to with their stereos incessantly barking, crying, and rattling my wall.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed walking through your images (Vlad the Impaler with the mounds of Cossack flesh, your hooded conquistador self), your alliteration in the last three lines of the second stanza, and your redemption of the broken chair. Well done.
-Nicole
Thanks Nicole.I find similarities in our work except you are 100x me industrial strength!
ReplyDelete