Member Poem

The greatest performance of my life. 
Howard’s proud piece de resistance award  on Poetry Nook for my magnum opus “Rush Amid The Rapids” in their daily member section.
After endless hours of toil, tribulation, energy sapping endeavour and quite a few rejection slips of the email inbox type.
One invests as I did so much effort, enterprise, entreaty to fruitless no avail initially,
despite patient guidance  and sagacious tutorship from wondrous sister, Jay Pallen,  who helped  me  navigate the perilous ocean,
we must sometimes swim without a life jacket in the area of imaginative thought.
From work in progress to sophisticated stylish sweep drawn to a quelle surprise denouement,
Sister Jay  was my ship’s captain.
But first things first.
The plot entailed a multi-layer
mystical entanglement about suspect demarcations between an urban dweller’s pressure cooker lifestyle and that green leaf tranquil environment found in nature.
An accountant, Landon, who was torn between two stools,
desperately seeking something deeper but wasn’t really sure if such depth actually exists.
Of course the other aspect of this mind-boggling jigsaw was an audacious couple who ran this Eco publishing company in an idyllic otherworld hub.
They parted ways after a very  early cordial relationship but still kept in touch.
A dark secret was being kept which Landon could only guess at.
The subject of life in all its forms was the one common thread between this mysterious pair and said deep life meaning accountant.
There were many reasons why this Landon decided to spring a sudden visit.
A crucial overall element if the truth be told.
Gaps between visits can have so many strange  effects.
But why were they (the couple) so furtive?
An intangible cone of silence that worsens with time.
Jay, suggested that I paint an elaborate tour-de-force natural world canvass to add intrigue  and spectrum colour.
Nettles, rainbow trout arches,
clubmoss plants and other ornate structures.
Against labyrinthine ancient rock form, overbearing mountain peak, the bizarre appearance then vanishment of an elk as the watchtower  mountain gazed on what would soon hatch a peculiar cataclysmic curtain closer.

Jay’s astute analytical asides left me thunderstruck at every single turn.
Over copious cream coffees and velvet vegan bars, tasty tea and  pistachio protein pecks I listened avidly to her:
“Don’t lose your  core narrative or momentum.
Make sure there are abrupt surprise scene shifts and never waste  an opportunity to add portrait plenty pigment.”
An extract from my creation which Jay Pallen always emphasises would be this one :
“The couple, Chesney(Husband) and Chelsea(Wife)  resided in a cherry wood log cabin with tongue-and-groove cladding and a pine timber roof lantern peering pensively into the maze-like river down below.
This dwelling was perched at the side of a mountain.”
A woman of immense giftedness, Jay, forensically screens each phrase, for potential catharsis and climax building.
A gradual sense of ecstasy descends as Jay, angel and mentor, to my most ambitious project yet wisely observes : “Jump start your target audience.
They mustn’t doze off.”
My sister again : “What may seem fascinating to you might just as easily be incorrigibly boring to others.”
By way of example another passage from this tome :
“A circus of the wilds continued to intensify outside as species vied with species in a fanfare of egos.
Chirping Robin Red  Breasts at the window,
crickets in high chorus as they scrape their wings behind a Vulcan steam curtain.
Horseshoe Bats that bob and weave around  rainbow shafts.
Such delights as Daddy Long Legs with their Cancan dances on sodden green patches.”

A blissful whisper emanates from Jay  : “Keep littering your storyline with little hints and clues. This life obsessed couple are in denial.”
Chelsea had a quaint baby twang,  Chesney a roguish infant zeal.
They seemed to have one  intense obsession with children’s  toys.
“Landon did notice kids gadgets dangling over cube modular storage units.
Pink Salmon quilted eiderdowns, pillows with children sleeping under moonlit skies, and Milky Way throw blankets completing this dreamland scene.”
Sustaining short attention spans can be an obstacle  as Jay indeed took every opportunity to point out.
The life energy, lifespan and this secret!
Tease, taunt and trick the target readership,  Jay Pallen, with that magic ripple charm laugh, our family Einstein and guru.
Especially when absorbing the description below as torrid tumult to furious finale.
“Landon limped outside to an
ear-splitting din and a mist-laden detritus that merged into pockets of streams steeplechasing each other.
A slimy frog vaults and casts a damp viscous oil spray in his direction into the bargain.”

Why did  Chesney and Chelsea treat Landon like a child?
Why were this couple imitating mannerisms one associates with children?
We’re there other revelations in store?
Landon discovered in a letter near the edge of some nascent river that Chelsea was barren, incapable of having children according to their doctor  and they didn’t want to face such dilemmas when managing their life publishing company.
Chesney and Chelsea offered Landon a position as accountant and editor.
Was Landon being used as a family substitute?
Landon himself receives a text from his company that his post  was in danger.
So the job offer might seem like someone’s  hidden hand.
A curious convergence had now arrived.
All three characters jump with glee into a turbulent cascade singing their hearts out as that sky tower mountain watches imperiously and the elk reappears.
Maybe that elk knew something after all!
Rush Amid The Rapids was published on Poetry Nook 16th February 2020
How Jay and I rejoiced due to her pivotal role in the greatest performance  of my life.

Second place podium medal winner on Poetry Soup
13 July 2022