Showing posts with label Lovebirds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lovebirds. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Stevie and Vincent (the Gold Dust Woman and the Redheaded Madman)

 


The Poet’s Garden

is lit with black fire, melancholy,

and a brushstroke break

turning lover’s faces to ash.

 

Just ask le fou roux

or the gold dust woman.

 

Remember Rumours?

Maybe we love it because in our own ways

we’ve lived it, too—as if our own heartwrecks

had been written like birdsong

 

sounding so good

we want to cut off our own ear

to keep it

 

safe from another’s melody—

or to present it,

bound and bloody, to a lover as a reminder

 

never to forget the whispering

of blue firs

hanging like shadows—

and fleeting, like the holding of hands,

 

before we stopped dreaming

of tomorrow.

 

 

© 2025 Jennifer Wagner

 

NaPoWriMo Day 29:  write a poem inspired by the life of a musician, poet, or other artist.  I’ve written a mash-up inspired by Stevie Nicks and Vincent Van Gogh.

dVerse Poetics:  Getting Hooked on Opening Lines

 

The Poet’s Garden (Public Garden with Couple and Blue Fir Tree) was painted by Van Gogh in 1888.  Photo © Jennifer Wagner from my copy of Essential Van Gogh.

In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album number seven of the 500 greatest of all time.

“Le Fou Roux” (The Redheaded Madman) was a nickname given to Vincent Van Gogh by the townspeople of Arles.

“Gold Dust Woman” is the title of a song from the Rumours album as well as the title of a biography of Stevie Nicks.

 


Friday, April 25, 2025

Honeymoon, Cabo San Lucas, 1998

 

ghost crabs scurrying on the beach at night

 

our umbrella being stolen while we were snorkeling on Tortuga Beach

the tide, too, (almost) stealing our lunch

 

replacing the Cokes in the hotel fridge so we wouldn’t get charged

 

the glass bottom boat seasick tour, one yellow fish

 

our sunburns

 

our wild ride up the coast

in the convertible bug

 

the best Italian food (whodathunkit)

 

the wild burro nodding sleepily

 

the photo of our feet at the pool

my ring

and the silver and onyx bracelet I still wear

 

The Hotel California, or at least the sign for it

 

pink champagne on ice (actually, margaritas)

dancing in the courtyard (actually, evading the police)

 

checking out and

never leaving—

 

coming up on the 27th lovesick tour with you (whodathunk that, too)

 

us, ghost crabs, scurrying on the beach,

still evading the police (when we have to!)

 

 

© 2025 jennifer wagner

 

a list poem for poem-a-day 25: write a memory poem

 

Saturday, March 15, 2025

Stone Mountain Lovers

image © 2025 emma & clint

 

A settlement on a hill,

whole,

together, stone

 

mountain lovers—

birds born

 

of rain, of forest, of snow—

soon to be one,

blood and bone.

 

The lights, their eyes—

azure, emerald, form

 

a curving of hands, hearts

together feathered into

the beautiful poem of home.

 

© 2025 Jennifer Wagner

 

I rarely post process notes with my poems, but for this one, here goes:  my son, Clint, whose name means “a settlement on a hill,” recently became engaged to his love, Emma, whose name means “whole.”  He proposed at Stone Mountain Park, a special place for the two of them.  He comes from rain land, she from snow.  His eyes are blue, hers are green.  They are very much birds of a feather—having the same heart to serve people.  They have been doing so here in the US, with plans to do so soon abroad.  They are just simply beautiful poetry together. 

 

WGO:  Beauty

Poetic Bloomings