I ... entered the poem of life, whose purpose is ... simply to witness the beauties of the world, to discover the many forms that love can take. (Barabara Blackman in 'Glass After Glass')

These poems are works in progress and may be updated without notice. Nevertheless copyright applies to all writings here and all photos (which are either my own or used with permission). Thank you for your comments. I read and appreciate them all, and reply here to specific points that seem to need it — or as I have the leisure. Otherwise I reciprocate by reading and commenting on your blog posts as much as possible.

28 April 2014

Favourite Monster

I loved you, Godzilla,
and my little boys loved you,
at the local drive-in
forty-odd years ago;
and their father as well,
who is dead now ...
but you, dear Godzilla, never die,
not even when you're attacked
with gigantic versions of the sparklers
we used to wave on Guy Fawkes' Night,
all sizzling and coruscating
and bouncing off your hide.

Poor clumsy Godzilla,
not even faintly humanoid,
but lumbering and alien
and rather dumb,
so slow you came across
as the underdog.
I mean, you couldn't do anything 
with grace, elegance, finesse or panache —
your special effects were creaky.
We didn't even speak the same language!
You were weird (not in a good way).
You were the big ugly. You were just wrong.

Yet there was something about you.
We felt you were misunderstood.
We blamed it on your upbringing.
We knew that somewhere within
you were really good — anyway,
we were on your side. You became
our favourite monster (even dearer 
than sad, persecuted King Kong).
What a pity you couldn't win an Oscar.
You could have brandished it high,
in in-your-face triumph: "This
is for all the misfits!"


















Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 unported, 2.5 generic, 2.0 generic and 1.0 generic licence.
|Description={{ja|1=石川県珠洲市のゴジラ岩}}
|Source=投稿者が撮影。PENTAX LX + smc PENTAX-FA★ 1:4.5 300mm ED & IF
|Author=名古屋太郎
|Date=2006-11


April Poem A Day Challenge 2014, day 27: a monster poem

Published in She Too, a collaboration with Delaina J Miller, Helen Patrice and Leigh D C Spencer (Kansas City, Content X Design, 2014) [See right side-bar]

Linked (April 2016) to Dark Poetry for the Cruellest Month: Poetizing Japanese Folklore  (Godzilla is modern Japanese folklore; I say so!)

8 comments:

  1. Brilliant! I have been rethinking the poem I wrote at 4 this am as it is dark and heavy. I was thinking about how my Mom and I would watch all of these movies. We were where both young as I am older now then she would have been then but oh the memories of watching the monsters that as you say made us find pity in our hearts for the misunderstood. I love this one!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Delaina.

      I liked your poem. Monsters ARE dark and heavy!

      Delete
  2. That was so real.....I too felt sorry for the big lumbering hulk. I don't believe he intended harm, just like we don't mean to tread on ants :D XXX

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  3. LOL, modern folklore works. And Godzilla is the granddaddy of all kaiju after all! Very cute.

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  4. Ah! Godzilla, the icon. You mean to tell me that he never won an Oscar! A dark and beautiful poem Rosemary :-)

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  5. First, I must say that I adore your first line. It's just perfect. Then you make me fall in love with the whole poem by humanizing the monster in the most realistic of ways. I think this would make Godzilla smile... with a lot of teeth.

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  6. Aww, makes me feel a little sorry for the big guy! Good job!

    ReplyDelete

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