Went with the Kuljians for a walk. Howard
Kuljian and the dog played along the surf
While the others tagged along: Gregory,
His sixteen-year-old son, his wife Mary,
Their eighteen-year-old daughter, Olivia.
A girlfriend accompanied Olivia.
They were talking and hardly thought of Fran.
But a worry was bothering Mary
That maybe her exuberant Howard
And their spirited darling Gregory...
Weren't they throwing that stick too near the surf?
So when a ten-foot wave sneaked from the surf,
It didn't register with Olivia.
It was more heard than seen by Gregory,
And much more felt than heard or seen by Fran,
Who had gone too close to fetch for Howard—
All this horror unfolding for Mary.
Her son's grab for the dog's collar Mary
Saw, and saw their dog swept into the surf,
Saw their son also swept, and saw Howard
Rush in to save him. But now Olivia
Saw her father knocked down and swept like Fran
While from the churning surf crawled Gregory.
Almost out and turning now, Gregory
Saw his agitated mother Mary
Falling toward their missing man and Fran,
And joined her after dad into the surf.
The friend to save her friend held Olivia
From following brother, mother, Howard.
Now the girls could see no sign of Howard,
Though perhaps a short glimpse of Gregory.
But uppermost for daughter Olivia
Was not any sign at all of Mary—
All family but her now gone to surf,
Gone after each other and their dog Fran.
But not long after Howard and Mary
And Gregory disappeared in the surf,
Out to Olivia and her friend loped Fran.
_______________
Note: The factual source for this poem comes from the November 27 article, "California Family Swept to Sea While Trying to Save Dog," on ilovedogs.com.
Copyright © 2012 by Morris Dean
How sad !! I hadn't heard about this. What a tragedy !
ReplyDeleteI think often about your Churning sestina and its "happy ending." I first read it before seeing the news item, but reading the "factual source" did not at all diminish the powerful impact the poem has on me. It is a triumph of content over a potentially straitjacketing poetic form, yet a noble triumph because its achievement was clearly not the point of writing the poem.
ReplyDeletePlease articulate what you think was the point of writing the poem. I'm going to have to try to recall what point I myself had in mind....
DeleteOne thing I know I'm most proud of is the metaphor of "churning," a word used in the news account to describing the surf. Churning is quite an apt way to describe a sestina (with its continual shuffling of the rhetorical set of end-words).
Let me help you recall... This is how you explained it in a facebook comment -
ReplyDelete"Of course, I was inspired to write more by the powerful feeling the story evoked in me than by the nice number of the story's characters lending itself to the six-based sestina form."
So the point of writing it was to express that feeling, and mastering the sestina form was merely a means to that end.
Ah, yes, I remember writing that!
DeleteMaybe I'm not understanding what you're saying in "It is a triumph of content over a potentially straitjacketing poetic form, yet a noble triumph because its achievement was clearly not the point of writing the poem," which seems to be saying that the point of writing the poem was NOT to achieve a triumph of content over form. I'm not sure that I wasn't trying BOTH to express the powerful feeling AND to do it even against the resistance of a demanding verbal form. In fact, now I'm not sure that I wasn't inspired to write more by the challenge of triumphing over that form than to simply express the powerful feeling. Does that make the triumph less noble?
It may even be that, ironically perhaps, the straightjacket even enabled the expression. It certainly, in my rendering anyway, forced the story to speak for itself, in the sense that I find the form suppresses the otherwise prevalent tendency of poetry-writing to evoke metaphors and images.
Does that make sense? I'm not sure I expressed it well.