Catch-me-if-you-can

Cherry

By Ed Crane

Sun, 25 Feb 2024
  • 595 reads
7 comments
 

A Walrus once said “happiness

is a warm gun.” Find any meaning

to those white vinyl words and

it would be wrong. Impossible

to pin a multi-coloured butterfly

in fickle flight searching for nectar.

 

A carrot on a stick donkeys us

on without direction looking

for that precious prize until

it leads to the mountain’s edge

where falling means swimming

inside our pool of living death.

 

The intense flame of a firefly,

a transient light brightening 

our night lasting an instant,

echoes through our body

leaving us searching darkness

hoping for the flame’s return.

 

Like the emperor’s clothes,

we dress ourselves in coats

of imagined pleasure not

believing those around us

can see how exposed we are.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will-o%27-the-wisp#/media/File:Will-o-the-...

Certificate PG
Poem
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by Penny4athought on

Wow...wow...This is so interpretive, surreal, filled with twisting images - I loved it! The first verse took me to the white album and of course I love the Beatles (Favorite: John Lennon) so Happiness is a Warm Gun conjured his voice for me but the next verses, filled with metaphors, internalized for me the human condition of hope, sorrow, reality and dream...I'm not sure if my interpretations are what you meant to invoke with this but all the same, your phrasing and imagery moved me. Thanks for posting this...much enjoyed it and will read again and again-- setting this in favorites!smiley

Penny4athought

Submitted by Ed Crane on

John's lyrics as with many of his songs are rather opaque and hard to read 

It made me think about the persuit of happiness and how fleeting and fragile happiness can be.

 Pleased you enjoyed reading this and thank you again x

 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

 

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

I don't think I understand the 'warm gun' phrase though maybe it is conjuring up how we can selfishly grab what will (we think) bring us happiness, without care for harm that the action may bring to others.

I like your concentration on the fragility of the happiness that comes from things, which is what I was aiming at, not belittling temporary happinesses (where not hurting others!), though sometimes as I think you are saying they distract us to neglecting important things that in the end might be saving and lasting, and so end in gloom, needing another temporary lift. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

Happiness is a warm gun is from a song by John Lennon of the Beatles but apparently it's a phrase he read from a shooting magazine being anti war maybe it sparked something in his imagination since the meaning of the song is abstract ans seems to cover sex drugs and even religion my point was that happiness is as difficult to pin down as the meaning of the song.

the next stanzas reflect on that. Happiness is state of mind that can last seconds or a lifetime and can be lost or thrown away too easily. People can go to extraordinary lengths to find it and that can lead to crushing disappointment. Sometimes people are happy but they don't think of it that way.

personally I feel contentment with one's self is more important than the butterfly that is happiness 

 

 

Submitted by D G Moody on

Evocative for me, of how John Lennon composed his lyrics - a worthy cherry Ed.

Dougie Moody

Submitted by Ed Crane on