Fearfully, tearfully
Jacqueline Kennedy
Shielded his body and
Cradled his head.

Bullets of ignorance,
Incomprehensibly,
Silenced our dreams as her
Husband lay dead.


Note: I know this format is usually reserved for lighter, more irreverent themes. However, the words just spilled out as I thought to write some sort of tribute, however small.

joet

I think the tribute is touching, despite the "hickory dickory" rhyme scheme.

Les

A subject in history wherein all who lived will remember where they were when they heard the news. Personally, I was walking down the ramp of a C-124 in Siagon, having just arrived. 22 Nov 63. (23 Nov there)

Very well done, and NO we do not stay with the light hearted. All subjects are viewed here.

Terry

Les and Terry:

Thanks for the read and the comments. Speaking of remembering, the assassination occurred on my 17th birthday...that's one birthday I'm absolutely sure to remember for the rest of my life.

joet

Double dactyls are usually humorous, true. The form is executed perfectly, though. No pun intended.

Joe.. the assination occured on my mothers 44th birthday.

Terry

I like it. I thought that if the last two line is as follow it sounded better to me. Your poem your say.


Silenced our dreams as
Her husband lay dead.


Debutant

Joseph,

Nicely done.

jhs

I actually laughed when I read Hugh Clary:

"The form is executed perfectly, though. No pun intended."

This is funny.

cad

Thought the words were poignant, but they sure didn't fit the format.

JP

Bump

Most excellent. Love the format vs. subject matter. It's like "Ring Around the Rosie."

Blue:

Thank you.

The format is double dactyl, which has a very specific set of rules. If you're interested in knowing more, Hugh Clary provided the following website several years ago.

www.stinky.com/dactyl/dactyl.html

Joe

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2006 09:38AM by JosephT.

well done

You remind me, Joe, that in the weeks just after the assassination, my poet freinds tried desparately to write tribute poems. I was not writing poetry at that time, just studying mathematics. Good job.

Peter

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2006 10:44AM by drpeternsz.

unrelated, but what the hell:

[www.emule.com]

First of all, Happy Birthday Jo!
Second, I like the brevity and think the light tone is abe to capture the irony of how we commemorate/celebrate such occasions despite the sadness involved.

Thanks for the link, Joseph T. These are cool... I'll have to try and think one up.

The House of Yes. That's a good movie/play I am reminded of by this poem.

Johnny, Peter, and Khalida:

Thank you, all.

Joe

Happy Birthday dude!

Blue:

I have to warn you, double dactyls become addictive very quickly.

Angelia:

Many thanks.

Joe

Joe,

My parents still sometimes talk about it. About the uncertainty that it represented and the possibility of nuclear war with the USSR. It holds equal footing with them and Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. For those of us not born then, it is hard to comprehend it. I don't think that Tianamen (sp) Square even comes close, which is my closest equivalent reference point.

As far as the poem goes, it seems to me that in the second stanza, the comma after incomprehensibly, should be move to after the word, dreams.

Brucefur

I won't get too addicted. My brain's too small for multisyllabic words. :-D

Happy Birthday (?) too!

Bruce:

Thanks for reading and responding. The air was ripe with the fear of nuclear war when JFK was assassinated, just as it was only 13 months earlier during the Cuban missile crisis. For those of us who grew up in the 50s practicing air raid drills in elementary school, reading newspapers and magazines full of ads for "radiation proof" bomb shelters, and wondering if every stranger was a Communist (thanks to Senator McCarthy), the only events that have come close to that kind of disquietude were the 9/11 attacks.

As for my use of the comma: if I were to write the second stanza without line breaks it would read as a complete sentence. The word "incomprehensibly" is considered a non-essential element to a clear understanding of that sentence. "Bullets of ignorance shattered our dreams as her husband lay dead" is still a complete sentence whose meaning is not altered by removal of the non-essential word, incomprehensibly. A general rule in grammar states that non-essential elements should be set off by a pair of commas.

Sorry for the long explanation, but as a part-time English teacher I sometimes can't help myself.

Joe

How does a double dactyl compare in size to a terradactyl? Ya know that is what aviation fuel is made from dontcha?

Terry:

Double dactyls are much smaller and provide fuel for the brain, only.

Joe

Nice tribute, Joe. And since it's after midnight here, I'll wish you Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday too to Terry's mother.

Marty

Mary:

Thank you. I hope all is going well for you.

Joe

Bump....lest we forget.

Joe

Thanks, Joseph. A life altering event for some of us.

Peter

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2008 12:50AM by petersz.

Thanks. Glad I got to see this.
I've not been here long but I said it before and I mean it with respect.
I believe a thread's not done until Joe says it's done.

Steevo

Nice tribute, Joe. And Happy Birthday.

Mary

i'm glad you bumped this, joe.

i sat on my father's shoulders to see jfk's plane land at the malmstrom afb. i asked my dad which one was the president and he said- "he's one of us-look for his red hair".

i don't remember much about second grade- ok, i remember the girl who sat across from me in class and kicked me every day when the teacher wasn't looking, and i remember my lime green pencil and how we had to ask for a sheet of paper from our teacher (she kept our writing tablets so we wouldn't waste the paper). but mostly i remember the day one of us was shot.

I was sitting in Freshman Chemistry. Someone came in and whispered in the profs ear. The professor looked at the formula he was writing on the board, erased it, looked at us, re-wrote the formula, which filled three blackboards, and then ran out of the room without saying anything. I went downstairs, someone told me the President's been shot in the hallway. I went outside to the front of the building, which faces the back side of the state house in Boston. I listened. something was missing. Then I knew. The pigeons who line the back edge of the state house were silent. Not a sound...that was the beginning of the change in the world all of us have had to face for the last 45 years...the death of American idealism at a national level, and that wrenching ache inside us...that we could do this to ourselves.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2008 01:41PM by petersz.

I went outside to the front of the building,
which faces the back side of the state house in Boston.
I listened. Something was missing.
Then I knew.
The pigeons who line the back edge of the state house were silent.
Not a sound...that was the beginning of the change in the world
all of us have had to face for the last 45 years...
the death of American idealism at a national level,
and that wrenching ache inside us...
that we could do this to ourselves.

A "found" poem. Thank you, Peter.

Joe

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2008 04:49PM by hpesoj.

I'm glad it found you, Joseph...doesn't every poem need its reader?

amo,

Peter

'wrenching ache'. Yes, that's right. I'm English, not American, but I shared your pain as a young man and, as an older and perhaps slightly wiser man, I share it still. 'wrenching ache'. Yes, those apt words are for remembering.

Stephen

that we could do this to ourselves.

That's what makes the JFK assassination so very different from the other unforgettable moments that people liken it to - the moon landing, the space shuttle explosion, and even 9/11. This was a tragedy unlike any other that we have experienced. We did this to ourselves. Very astute observation, Peter.

Joe

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2008 11:32AM by hpesoj.