Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Tuesday Poem - 'So Over The Rainbow' by Jennifer Compton



So Over the Rainbow

My son tells me that
it's all over the Internet
Dark Side of the Moon
is the soundtrack for

The Wizard of Oz.
O Emerald City!
I travel north to pitch
a film to Fox

reading Spinster
by Ashton-Warner
written on my patch.
So few of us

from Kiwiland
that paua is annotated.
As the train pulls into
Emerald Central - paua*

*paua - irridescent hell.


I am awaiting permission from a poet (who is away at a festival it seems)
so was caught short this week without a poem. I was rummaging around
in my back files and came upon this poem, which I have always liked, but
have never managed to get anyone else enthusiastic about. No one seems
to get it. I suppose it hinges upon knowing that Sydney used to be called
Emerald City from time to time, oh way back then. And that I didn't live in
Sydney at that time. And as I am from NZ I know a paua when I come across
one. And the book, written by a NZer, which I was reading in the train, had a
most amusing typo. Hell instead of shell. That I read as the train was pulling
into Sydney (Emerald City). A poem shouldn't need so much explication,
right? But still, I have an affection for the poem. This is its first outing. 



3 comments:

  1. The title is wonderful! ... I think all the explication was interesting, but I don't think the poem requires it. I read it as being far away from home and coming into Hollywood full of expectation. But I'm from Los Angeles and didn't know about Sydney being called the Emerald City. With the poem here, I really don't need to know, perhaps ... could mean Tokyo, New York, whatever. The main point I read is that no one will ever really know the facts about me/ my background.

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  2. I like the accompanying commentary here -- especially the note about the type. Amusing, and nice to come to something you have dug up from some time back. That's always quite fun.

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  3. I enjoyed it very much even though I didn't know Sydney has been called Emerald City. Beautiful picture of the paua "hell" too.

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