A.K. Andrew,akandrew.com,a writers notebook ,Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point
We're coming to the end of National Poetry Month and I want to share a poem I wrote a few years ago in a poetry workshop. I was living in England at the time, feeling very homesick for San Francisco, as well as nostalgic for a time when I was more mobile than I am now.So this was the result - the first poem I'd written since I was a child, in fact. For this collection of emotions, I found the process of writing a poem very cathartic.The location is the waterfront near to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge at Fort Point. For those of you who remember the scene in Vertigo where Kim Novak falls in the water - that's where I'm talking about!
Fort Point
A.K. Andrew, Fort Point, Golden Gate Bridge, akandrew.com,a writers notebook
Fort Point, Golden Gate Bridge
Ghosts of blue-bellies dash between chill, meagre quartersRunning up concrete stepsRunning up the flag ofthe Red Brick FortAlone facing the Pacific OceanNow nestled beneath rumbling red girders of the Bridge.An Alliance of Gateway and Protector ofThe CityOur City.White foamy tentacles crash, splitRusting chain links,Goliath chainServing only to taunt, not protectA leap to the rocks or giant watery mouth inviting init’s enormity, its moving depth beckoning.Agonizing beauty surround once morePacific blasts tearing at hair and heartA white rogue wave rises uphitting crumbling brick, splashing medrenchingHer.Laughing stillwe cycle home on the bays blue edgewarmed by love, vigour,youth.
I found the process of writing a poem very cathartic
How do you feel about happy memories? Does it make you sad to think of them and wish that things were still the same, or do you feel fortunate to have had the good times to look back on? Perhaps you don't like to dwell on the past at all, but prefer to look forward rather than back.
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Many Thanks!