Looking back I see
a thin, slightly nervous boy.
Then, I saw tall, dark, handsome
and sophisticated. I was 17.
My friend’s party.
He, new in that crowd;
me, home on holiday:
each, to each
a glamorous stranger.
They had Buddy Holly’s
latest record, Rave On,
played it over and over.
We danced. The night was warm.
But Buddy died and I
flew away, back over the sea.
[Poem #50]
This began as a game some bloggers played in 2008, to write about people who'd made an impact, in the same number of words as one's age, every day for a year. I did them less often and went on longer, adding one word each birthday. I stopped in 2016 and incorporated them into my main poetry blog. In 2019 I resumed the project and gave it its own blog again, with a new name, where it may unfold at its own (slow, intermittent) pace. I've labelled these verse portraits, but they're more like quick sketches: mere glimpses, impressions....
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