.

Bowing to Power

Although they might
Not do what’s right,
The very strong
Are never wrong.

If you complain,
You’ll feel the pain
That’s coming to
A town near you.

.

.

Domestic Finances

Awash in situations less than stable,
We struggle on as best as we are able,
__Ignoring teachers far too manic
__Who seem unable to instill
__Much more than seeds of rabbit-panic,
__Which yields a rather bitter pill.

Sometimes a pill is very hard to swallow,
And sometimes victory seems mighty hollow,
__But we are predisposed toward eating
__What has been put in front of us,
__Despite our qualms about the seating
__Or who threw whom beneath which bus.

What has been given us has proven ample
Through many a curated survey sample,
__But what that has to do with money
__Is not so clear.  I walk this line
__Because I know you love me, Honey.
__Pinch pennies, and we’ll do just fine.

.

.

Weather Forecast

It’s raining once again today.
No work—the plants are soaking wet.
I might decide it’s time to play
A game of chess or read a book,
To turn a page or move a rook,
And carry on without regret
Within a world so damp and gray.

I’ll look for higher ground because
I do not know when everything
Will circle back to how it was
When Sol dispensed his blazing rays.
If it should rain for forty days,
I’ll build an ark and learn to sing—
It’s what an earnest pilgrim does.

Come hell, high water, rain or shine—
No matter what may yet befall—
I’ll take it on and make it mine,
And never say it wasn’t fair
That I was made to labor there.
If God allows, I’ll see it all
And do it all.  Where do I sign?

.

.

C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden.  Hundreds of his poems have appeared in scores of print and electronic journals out of North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Australia and India.  His collection, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder was published in 2013 by White Violet Press.

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10 Responses

  1. Joseph S. Salemi

    These are three poems of a very tough, hard-bitten realism — even cynicism, in some sense. They discuss politics (poem 1), family (poem 2), and climate (poem 3). But the third poem really uses the weather as a general metaphor for life itself and its unpredictable viccisitudes.

    I notice an increase in the complexity of the rhyme scheme from poem to poem. There are rhyming couplets in the first, then stanzas composed of a rhyming couplet and a quatrain in the second, then a scheme of ABACCBA in the third.

    Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      Nowadays, Joseph, it seems that not to be cynical is not to have a good grip on reality. Strange rhyme schemes are not that hard to come up with, but executing the scheme in subsequent stanzas can be tricky. And yet, at least one knows which way one needs to go, which is half the battle.

      Reply
  2. Jeff Eardley

    CB, I thought of brave Ukraine in, “Bowing to Power” and thought that the mighty and powerful are very often totally wrong. “Domestic Finances” is, I guess, something that you don’t have a problem with, but is most enjoyable to read. “Weather Forecast” is so topical over here with our gardens becoming swamplands. I am thinking of purchasing a pirogue to navigate what was once my back garden. Once again, a super image from Evan and a great, thoughtful trio today. Thank you.

    Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      It is difficult these days, Jeff, not to think about Ukrainia. Everybody loves the underdog, even though the underdog might be just as corrupt as the overlord. The idea here is akin to what our gym teacher, who was a Marine, told us on the first day of class: “I’m not always right, but I’m never wrong.”

      And how do you come to the conclusion that I “don’t have a problem with” domestic finances? It’s not as though I rake in a fortune from having poems published. I do OK, but I’m not rolling in cash.

      I didn’t know that England was getting a lot of rain, but meteriological fluctuations have always been with us and have nothing to do with the fabricated spectre of “Climate Change,” which is also something that has been going on forever. The point is that it’s never a good idea to work with plants when they are wet, for any number of reasons.

      I always try to be thoughtful, and writing poems might be the best way to deal with what my friends sometimes refer to as crazy thoughts.

      Reply
      • Jeff Eardley

        CB, please accept my humble apologies for the assumption that you are doing ok financially. You certainly deserve to be. You are a truly great poet and I can bet that you were a great tv presenter. Best wishes from the swampland of middle England.

      • C.B. Anderson

        Well, Jeff, if you look around a bit more closely you just might find that you are living on the fringes of Avalon.

  3. David Whippman

    CB, thanks for these. “Domestic Finances” has the wry humour of an Ogden Nash poem. And “Bowing to Power” is the most succinct description of realpolitik I’ve come across!

    Reply
  4. C.B. Anderson

    Ogden Nash, David? I wish.

    “Bowing to Power” is so succinct that I have seriously thought about inserting a middle stanza, maybe something involving an aggression/suppression rhyme, but I finally opted for brevity.

    Reply
  5. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    C.B., your poetry never fails to intrigue me and often has me viewing the mundane from a quirky angle… I love doing that. I like the brevity of “Bowing to Power” with its swift and stinging wake-up slap, but it’s “Weather Forecast” that has stolen my heart. No matter how wild life’s storm gets, I still want to sign up, wake up, and wring a pearl of joy from a charcoal cloud.

    Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      Yes, Susan, there is something to be said for wanting to “sign up.” In some fashion that’s what we did when we were barely gleams in the eyes of our parents, and we would be glad to re-up as often as we are offered a renewal of our contracts. One never needs to be in a hurry to seek his final just reward, for that day will come soon enough. As someone once said (though I first heard it in the lyrics of a song), “Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die.”

      Reply

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