A Labor (of Love) Day Weekend Post
Twenty-nine years ago this morning, if one reckons years by bureaucratically determined official US holiday scheduling, I awoke for the first time in bed with Julie.1
To celebrate this anniversary, I have, as I am wont to do,2 selected a few commemorative verses.
The Evolution Of Choices
I should note that neither of the poems in today’s post played a role in Julie’s and my courtship. In fact, I don’t think I was acquainted with either until much later. Indeed, I quoted these verses, to good effect if memory serves, in a romantic entanglement that took place after Julie’s death. I was reminded of them a couple of months ago when I read the erotically-charged Shining Wet at Writing As Jo(e) and more recently when Monae at Dear Diary posted some of those full-bodied romantic pieces that seem no more important to her than, say, oxygen.
As anyone who has read my posts knows, if a random thought wanders across my mind twice, it’s likely to be inflicted upon visitors to this blog. That these choices are so impressively overdetermined makes the appearance of these poems here inevitable.
In any case, this occasion, it seems to me, calls for rhymes that are lighthearted, straightforward, and, of course, sexy. The holiday marking the end of summer is not the time for heavy lifting. Shelley, Keats, Bryon, and that bunch, for example, are all fine fellows, are definitely capable of inciting and igniting passion with the best of them, and are deserving of their top gun status, but for a Labor Day Weekend assignation, they seem a tad heavy, perhaps even ponderous. Perhaps it’s just a matter of overkill.
Two Poems & One Song
No one, I suspect, has accused Ogden Nash of being ponderous. Just four lines long, this verse of his is my favorite poetic quickie:
I dreamed a dream,
And I’m glad I dreamt it:
I dreamed my hair was kempt
And my true love unkempt it.
I’m not an ee cummings fan,3 but “i like my body when it is with your body” is pretty hot and has that twist in the last line.
i like my body when it is with your body
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 so quite new
I’ll close this post with this familiar Gershwin song from the less familiar musical The Barkley’s of Broadway:
The way you wear your hat,
The way you sip your tea,
The mem’ry of all that,
No, no! They can’t take that away from me!
The way your smile just beams,
The way you sing off-key,
The way you haunt my dreams,
No, no! They can’t take that away from me!
We may never, never, meet again,
On the bumpy road to love,
Still, I’ll always, always, keep the mem’ry of . . .
The way you hold your knife,
The way we danced ’till three,
The way you changed my life,
No, no! They can’t take that away from me!
No, they can’t take that away,
‘Cause I think you’re here to stay,
No, they can’t take that away . . . from me!
Footnotes
- Julie Showalter was the fiercely intelligent, sexy, and loving woman and prize-winning author, with whom I had a outrageously wonderful 20 year marriage that ended with her death in late 1999 from cancer diagnosed the week of our wedding nearly 20 years earlier. Many posts on this blog are about her, our unlikely romance, and our life together, and still others consist of her writings. Information can be found at Julie Showalter FAQ. ~back~
- I am also, it appears, wont to use “wont” quite a bit. That, most likely, won’t change. ~back~
- I’m put off, I think, primarily by the fact that the only thing most folks recall about ee cummings is his gimmick of writing exclusively in lower case. I say that as one who is wild for gimmicks in general; I just think this one got away from ee. ~back~
Hello. I appreciate you mentioning me and my journal. I really enjoyed reading the poems in your journal. I think that you are quite a writer and I’m sure many would agree with that. Thanks again for the special mention. Take care.
Comment by Monae — September 2, 2006 @ 6:43 pm