Hi James, there's a lot to go at here. At the moment I think the authorial
'I' of stanza two is a bit orphaned. One solution would be to drop it an
work the poem as third person narrrative only. But it occured to me that it
might be possible to draft the piece so that the 'I' is both the personal
pronoun of the poet, and of the airman - a kind of concrete manifestation
of the identification that prompts the piece.

Not easy I know, and speculation on my part because I don't think I've
every actually written something using that device.

Best wishes, John


----- Original Message -----
From: "James Bell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 15 September 2001 15:16
Subject: Music Challenge - Somewhere A Big Band Is Playing


Just for the record, I find it massively difficult to respond to the poetry
being written about the tragic events in the USA. A lot of metaphorical
dust
needs to settle before I'd be able to see things in perspective. I have
been
meaning to post this poem below which was written so time back and I
realise
it does have parallels with this weeks events.

SOMEWHERE A BIG BAND PLAYS - SOMETIME IN THE 1940'S

Somewhere - a long way off -
a big band is playing
Chattanooga Choo Choo.

It's as if they are playing
in my head and the sound is echoing down
from somewhere in the 1940's

insisting to be heard as if it's
the first time the number is being played
with the trumpets and saxaphones

making a sensual and exciting
cocophony of notes for those who cannot
afford to drink and still think

aboiut whether they'll wake up tomorrow
and it will be their last one forever.

And a young airman swings
his girl up in the air as they dance
and watches how in those

eternal seconds she soars
and her skirt floats up to give her wings -
flash the suspenders and tops

of the silk stocking he brought
her that very day. The moment lasts like she
will never come down again.

This is the image that lingers with him
as he takes to the air - for the waether is
good for flying - next day

and the thought that
there is Chattanooga Choo Choo for later on.
And this is the promise

as the big band plays
sometime in the 1940s - even as a flesh blows him
away and he never comes down

and no Chattanooga Choo Choo
will come to choo choo him home.

James Bell


bw
James


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