Valentine's Day: The Nicholas Series
Welcome to the seventh annual have-some-poetry-for-V-Day extravaganza!
This started out with songs, then morphed to plain old poetry when I didn't have actual songs ready to go. I wasn't sure I was even going to continue it this year, but traditions, even dumb ones, are important to me. This is even after finding out I'd already posted some of the poems I'd thought about using this year-- Platonically, The Cow, and Bubbles got posted years ago. I can't fault myself; they're some of my favorites. All of them came from the same upper-level poetry class I took my last year in college (the first round). I have a whole portfolio, which is what I went through to find what I'll use today: The Nicholas Series.
A lot of the poems we wrote for that class were based upon poems written by other, more famous poets. This one was no different. This one is a good choice, I feel, for those of us out there who are single; it focuses on a crush. Nicholas is a real person, though he didn't use his formal name. I first recall meeting Nick when finding out he'd be the pianist for the pit orchestra when we did Into the Woods. I was like, who's Nick? From the other side of the piano, up popped this guy: "I'm Nick." Oh. Whoops. Even better, he was in choir and music classes with me. I'm a moron. How I'd never noticed him before, I'm not sure, though it's possible he wasn't in choir that fall and had been in the other series of music classes (our year was the first to have two sections, which merged in the winter). He was two years younger than me, a talented pianist; by the next year, when our theory classes involved a lot of composition, I longed for him to play my pieces. Instead, I got Mark. Oh well. Mark was more than capable.
I have to say, I didn't entirely have feelings for Nick. Like, I was interested in someone else...eventually, two someone elses, though they came from the same gene pool (okay, from the same fertilized egg, if we want to be technical), but there was something about him that intrigued me. My last year, our choir trip was to Florida; I was somewhat crushed that he'd garnered himself a choir girlfriend. At least he was friends with the girl who sat in front of me and my roommate on the bus, so I still got to see him a decent amount of the time. I have a really cute picture of them together with the other girl who sat in front of us. I also tried to get a picture of him with his shirt off, along with a bunch of other choir guys as we neared a beach; alas, my camera had to be a PITA and it cut him out. Rats.
The first poem in this series takes place on that trip; the others are more general. It's been years since I last saw him. When I worked at the music store, he'd pop in every so often; that gave me such a thrill, especially because we weren't more than friendly acquaintances. The last time I saw him, he'd been rollerblading by, saw me, and took off his skates before coming in. Aw, you didn't have to do that. No, really, he could have kept them on. I Googled him a few years later and discovered he had a band in Austin, where I know his dad lived; he was originally from Wisconsin. I'll probably never see him again, and that's okay; at least I have fond memories, and this series of poems. Now for the explanation and the series.
"Nicholas Series": I liked the idea of writing three poems with the same subject and chose the Julia poems as my base for this purpose. Julia was [Robert] Herrick's imaginary gal that he fantasized about; Nicholas, although a real person, is someone I admire and find attractive but I'm not attracted to him. I found him to be a good choice for the fantasy person. As for the meaning behind [the first one]: Playing frisbee is a choir tour ritual. "Glowing green" refers to the color of the frisbee and its movement in the air; "black" refers to the parking lots the game usually is played in; "honk" signals that our break is over and the frisbee guys (of which Nick is a part) have to get back on the bus to travel to our next stop.
The Frisbee, to Nicholas
Glowing green sails through the air
Wind blows through pre-styled hair
But with no worry
A suggestion of hurry
The catch will receive no glare
Muscled arms taut and tense
Glowing green hits a fence
It does not go over
Lands instead on clover
Thrower does not have to do penance
Sun shines down on black
Running feet over gravel and cracks
Jump up to catch
One has it, but snatch!
Another takes it then throws back
Honk of a horn says they're done
Pack away all signs of fun
Wipe off the dust
Get back on the bus
No more will they get to run
Upon Nicholas's Piano
Display thy talents, fair Nicholas, and let me
Lay my eyes on your god-like proficiency
Behold your dexterous fingers with glee
As they tame ivory and ebony
Upon Nicholas's Suit
Whenas in suits fair Nicholas goes
Great longing surges from head to toes--
How beautiful he is within those clothes
He walks across the stage, I see
Tugs at his tie, wants to be free
However, that would not suit me!
--June 5, 2000
One last note: At least one person in my poetry class was also in choir with me, and I know at least one other person would have known who he was or figured it out had I attached Nick's name to the poem; realize we had to make copies of our work for the class. This wasn't initially a series, at least not when I shared my poetry; I only included the first poem, and at that time it simply was called "The Frisbee." Over a decade on, I'm okay with attaching his name to it, but back then? I'd have been mortified. Besides, the people who knew me also knew about the other two guys to some degree; writing a poem about someone else would have just confused them. Well, maybe not--I do recall the second of those guys catching me as I watched Nick play football on the lawn outside the dining hall. But that's neither here nor there.
This started out with songs, then morphed to plain old poetry when I didn't have actual songs ready to go. I wasn't sure I was even going to continue it this year, but traditions, even dumb ones, are important to me. This is even after finding out I'd already posted some of the poems I'd thought about using this year-- Platonically, The Cow, and Bubbles got posted years ago. I can't fault myself; they're some of my favorites. All of them came from the same upper-level poetry class I took my last year in college (the first round). I have a whole portfolio, which is what I went through to find what I'll use today: The Nicholas Series.
A lot of the poems we wrote for that class were based upon poems written by other, more famous poets. This one was no different. This one is a good choice, I feel, for those of us out there who are single; it focuses on a crush. Nicholas is a real person, though he didn't use his formal name. I first recall meeting Nick when finding out he'd be the pianist for the pit orchestra when we did Into the Woods. I was like, who's Nick? From the other side of the piano, up popped this guy: "I'm Nick." Oh. Whoops. Even better, he was in choir and music classes with me. I'm a moron. How I'd never noticed him before, I'm not sure, though it's possible he wasn't in choir that fall and had been in the other series of music classes (our year was the first to have two sections, which merged in the winter). He was two years younger than me, a talented pianist; by the next year, when our theory classes involved a lot of composition, I longed for him to play my pieces. Instead, I got Mark. Oh well. Mark was more than capable.
I have to say, I didn't entirely have feelings for Nick. Like, I was interested in someone else...eventually, two someone elses, though they came from the same gene pool (okay, from the same fertilized egg, if we want to be technical), but there was something about him that intrigued me. My last year, our choir trip was to Florida; I was somewhat crushed that he'd garnered himself a choir girlfriend. At least he was friends with the girl who sat in front of me and my roommate on the bus, so I still got to see him a decent amount of the time. I have a really cute picture of them together with the other girl who sat in front of us. I also tried to get a picture of him with his shirt off, along with a bunch of other choir guys as we neared a beach; alas, my camera had to be a PITA and it cut him out. Rats.
The first poem in this series takes place on that trip; the others are more general. It's been years since I last saw him. When I worked at the music store, he'd pop in every so often; that gave me such a thrill, especially because we weren't more than friendly acquaintances. The last time I saw him, he'd been rollerblading by, saw me, and took off his skates before coming in. Aw, you didn't have to do that. No, really, he could have kept them on. I Googled him a few years later and discovered he had a band in Austin, where I know his dad lived; he was originally from Wisconsin. I'll probably never see him again, and that's okay; at least I have fond memories, and this series of poems. Now for the explanation and the series.
"Nicholas Series": I liked the idea of writing three poems with the same subject and chose the Julia poems as my base for this purpose. Julia was [Robert] Herrick's imaginary gal that he fantasized about; Nicholas, although a real person, is someone I admire and find attractive but I'm not attracted to him. I found him to be a good choice for the fantasy person. As for the meaning behind [the first one]: Playing frisbee is a choir tour ritual. "Glowing green" refers to the color of the frisbee and its movement in the air; "black" refers to the parking lots the game usually is played in; "honk" signals that our break is over and the frisbee guys (of which Nick is a part) have to get back on the bus to travel to our next stop.
The Frisbee, to Nicholas
Glowing green sails through the air
Wind blows through pre-styled hair
But with no worry
A suggestion of hurry
The catch will receive no glare
Muscled arms taut and tense
Glowing green hits a fence
It does not go over
Lands instead on clover
Thrower does not have to do penance
Sun shines down on black
Running feet over gravel and cracks
Jump up to catch
One has it, but snatch!
Another takes it then throws back
Honk of a horn says they're done
Pack away all signs of fun
Wipe off the dust
Get back on the bus
No more will they get to run
Upon Nicholas's Piano
Display thy talents, fair Nicholas, and let me
Lay my eyes on your god-like proficiency
Behold your dexterous fingers with glee
As they tame ivory and ebony
Upon Nicholas's Suit
Whenas in suits fair Nicholas goes
Great longing surges from head to toes--
How beautiful he is within those clothes
He walks across the stage, I see
Tugs at his tie, wants to be free
However, that would not suit me!
--June 5, 2000
One last note: At least one person in my poetry class was also in choir with me, and I know at least one other person would have known who he was or figured it out had I attached Nick's name to the poem; realize we had to make copies of our work for the class. This wasn't initially a series, at least not when I shared my poetry; I only included the first poem, and at that time it simply was called "The Frisbee." Over a decade on, I'm okay with attaching his name to it, but back then? I'd have been mortified. Besides, the people who knew me also knew about the other two guys to some degree; writing a poem about someone else would have just confused them. Well, maybe not--I do recall the second of those guys catching me as I watched Nick play football on the lawn outside the dining hall. But that's neither here nor there.