Thank you everyone for the beautiful comments about my poem. I would like to respond to a couple of queries in the format of "Frequently Asked Questions", common to many web sites. Here goes.
Have you written poetry before? (Thanks Tesso) Yes, but a long time ago. I visited Gallipoli in the early eighties. I was so moved by the experience that I wrote a poem about it. I have read that poem at Anzac Day ceremonies a few times over the years to good feedback but have done nothing since. I will only really write the stuff when I feel inspired to do so and I don’t know when my next bit of poetry will emerge.
Where did the photo come from, it seems so appropriate? (Thanks again Tesso) The picture – actually a water colour print – came from an interesting US web site: http://www.runnerart.com/
Are there subliminal messages in the poem? You bet! The Da Vinci Code it is not but, yes, there are some underlying messages I was trying to convey – the sensory and the sensual. All runners know how great it is to in the big outdoors letting nature engage our senses. There is something special about being out in the fresh air experiencing a beautiful sunrise, or sunset, or some other aspect of nature. This sensory side to running – the way our senses are jangled into action through running - is for me one of the most enjoyable facets of this great sport of ours.
But there is also the sensual side.
And it goes back a long way. Think of our ancestors in some dank, dark cave in the middle of winter. There is the male protector/provider, the alpha male at the high order end of the primate species – we’ll call him Fred. Also in that cave, is the female of the species, tending to home and hearth – we’ll call her Wilma. One morning Fred awakes and says: “Me good husband…me need to go catch wildebeest for breakfast…..Need to make Wilma happy”. So Fred trundles out of the cave, spear in right hand, Ipod strapped to left arm, and wearing his best pair of Nike Neanderthal running shoes.
Now Fred is no fool. He knows that to catch that wildebeest he needs to run damn fast. So fast in fact and for so long that the experience triggers all kinds of chemical processes in his body. After a while, wildebeest in hand, he feels the beaut endorphin and adrenaline rush that all us runners feel. Now Fred really likes that feeling. It’s such a feeling that Fred thinks, “Mmm….me feel good…..me feel real good…..must go back to cave and put smile on Wilma’s face.” And so he does. Off he goes and he and Wilma have a good roll around in the cave. Wilma has a smile on her face for the rest of the day. While the historic DNA research is not necessarily clear on this point, had Fred not gone hunting, or running, or rolling with Wilma on that day so long ago, we -the descendents - might not be here now reading about it.
It’s no surprise that researchers tell us that the feelings of well being that we experience after a run are due to the release of those same endorphins that make us feel good after sex. So running and sex have a common chemical link. It was my awareness of this that I sought to convey in a nuanced way by talking about the sensuality of running in my poem. Hence the references to being seduced, teased, or whatever by Lady Nature…”a Lover’s Delight”! Sex is such a beautiful thing, but so is running. I am sure Fred and Wlima would have agreed!
Peter, one of the much loved members of our Saturday running group, recently found himself in a spot of bother with a serious illness requiring urgent surgery. That's him, at left, when a few of us dropped in on him in Canberra's National Capital Private Hospital over the weekend. Unfortunately, the battle is not over for him and he will need to undergo a second round of surgery in coming weeks.
