Russia Fantasy Travel Inspires Coleridge Kublai Cheap Trick

While we miss the greenYgrey every day, it feels like a special occasion when we receive its latest news from its new rambles, which are at the moment continuing across Russia.

 From Russia With Love 

Dream Police (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hi, it’s Jack Wolfpac, satirical comedy travel writing correspondent at the Greenygrey. The above heading was a James Bond movie, and there’s a Cheap Trick reference in the latest episode of the greenYgrey’s all new thrilling fantasy travel by Google Maps literary epic comedy parody of the X Files.

Cheap Trick’s Live at the Budokan was recorded in Japan, and was a major success for them, full of great anthemic pop rock songs.

Snail Mail

I thought gYg had made a lot of progress when I read its post, but when I looked at the Google map I drew the conclusion that it had travelled too close to the road, slowing it down to a snail‘s pace.

snail (Photo credit: tamaki)

Maybe it had shapeshifted into a snail. I can neither confirm or contradict that theory. I know as much as you do. gYg doesn’t mention any shapeshifting, but maybe it didn’t think it was relevant.

Anyway, here is episode 7: 6 stanzas of 5-line limericks:

XaW Files Chapter 1 Episode 7

It was getting late
I thought I’d wait
to the end of dusk
then heard Khabarovsk
show me the M58.

I crossed the River Amur
sensing underneath blue blur
the heart of a leopard or tiger
with no need for a decider
or break and rip cerulean fur.

Priamurskaya a few hours west
Kolyuchinskaya several days past
Koly was pre-Amur
Amur was pre-Priamur
Reaching skaya was sign for a rest.

Nikolaevka, Dezhnevka, Volochaevka
never did veer
until I reached Olgokhta
and tucked into a starter
main course, dessert and beer.

I made the leftovers into a sandwich
eaten on the far side of Smidovich
Aur led to Budukan
reminding me of a Cheap Trick
live album which made them rich.

Would my live touring words
ever make such inroads
I wandered loud on a highway
wondering Coleridge’s Xanadu Kublai
or west-travelling Genghis and hordes.

Link for Amazon book and kindle.

Link for multiple Ereaders at Smashwords.

Poem about Cherry Blossoms Spring Symbolism

Cherry Blossom (Sakura) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Marc Latham’s latest Folding Mirror poem was first inspired by observing nature, and finished off with research on Wikipedia. In the wiki world he discovered that ume is a type of tree, hanami is the tradition of picnicking under blooming blossoms and sakura is another name for cherry blossoms and a folk song. The short flowering of cherry blossoms symbolises the transience of life in Japan. Here’s the poem:

Sacrifice and Celebration

cherry blossom
flower flotsam
wind’s caress
trees undress
flying free
spring confetti

independent, resplendent

earth decoration
feeling liberation
underneath ume
picnic hanami
ephemeral time
sakura rhyme

Marc Latham’s central site is the Greenygrey (http://www.greenygrey.co.uk).

Poem Inspired by Nature’s Morning Glory

Image by Angelrays via Flickr

Today we have a lovely nature folding mirror poem by Jean Knill, who has her own blog and also blogs at Writelink.  The poem is very apt after a sunny early  spring morning.  Here’s Jean’s account of how the poem came to life:

My inspiration for this poem started when I opened the curtains on the French window and sat down at the table next to it to have breakfast.  It was just getting light.  The trees in next door’s garden were dark against the sky, and we could make out some little birds on the high branches.  Later, sitting on top of a double decker bus driving through the Dorset countryside, I marvelled at the colours of the trees and other vegetation we were passing when the sun came out from behind the clouds. 

I wanted to write a folding mirror poem, but some of the words that came to mind were quite lengthy and I couldn’t mirror them in the right place in the other half of the verse.  They were going to make the poem seem lopsided.  So I decided to count syllables instead, as I do when I write haiku.  This poem was the result.

The syllable count is: 5-9-7-5-9-7 (4) 7-9-5-7-9-5

Thanks for explaining the poem Jean, and also for creating and sharing it…and the syllables lesson too.

 Nature’s Kaleidoscope

 In early morning
leafless black branches are silhouettes
against the lightening sky.
Small winged acrobats
swing among the flimsy topmost stems
before  flying off en masse.

 Here comes the sun,

 flames the sky with orange streaks,
climbing higher, turning trees into
a kaleidoscope.
Gold, copper and lime emerge
from dull grey bark until a cloud shroud
melts them off again.