I like your poems, I like all poetry! I wish I could cook (better), there are a few food experiments my sons like, or wish I had an adventerous job on a ship!
Your story about telling the guy the soda is down below...reminds me once when I went to a meeting that was all men, and all equals, nobody was the boss. There was a pitcher of water & glasses, and one of them heavily suggested that I go around and pour water for everyone :( So I just placed the pitcher of water on the center of the table and sat down again. He wasn't thrilled. The other guys looked surprised also. Did they REALLY expect the only woman there to pour a glass of water for each of them? SERIOUSLY?
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Hi Kathleen
Very nice poetry.
I thought I would share one I wrote about 25 years ago when I was working as a cook on the ships in the Arctic on the Beaufort Sea in 1985. Just about anyone can write better poetry than me so don't think I am trying to outdo you or something. I'm not.
First I will give you a bit of the background story.....
I was working as a cook on an icebreaker ship. All the crew was guys except me, of course. I had never before worked on a boat of any kind so one of the guys decided to take me under his wing so to speak and teach me the proper vocabulary for the different parts of ship and other such matters concerning the sea life of a sailor.
One day someone asked me for a soda and I told him "The sodas are down in the basement". Well, my new mentor did not like that one bit. "It's down 'below' ", he almost roared. I found him amusing. He really was a nice enough guy.
One day he was explaining the rank of everyone on the ship to me even though we weren't in the military. He had served in the British navy which would explain why everything had to be done and said properly according to him.
He explained how he, being a Chief Engineer, was an officer. He also said that the Captain, of course, was an officer as were the First and Second Mates and the 2nd Engineer.
His attitude amused me so I said to him all seriousness, "Since I am a professional cook, that would make me an officer, too, right?" I knew it didn't make me an officer and furthermore I didn't care but I was just trying to get a reaction.
He said, "Nope, you're just the cook."
Anyway I ended up writing this little poem about him...
I went up north to cook on a ship at sea
Where I met a certain First Engineer
He was an officer he said and I was just a mere cook
He had me thinking I was lucky I could read my recipe book.
What's an 'officer' I thought. Is it something with a soul?
Or is it just a polite word one uses instead of 'asshole'.
Another time in my life, I was going to a certain coffee shop on a regular basis and I got to know the staff and some of the regular customers.
There was a guy who worked for a towing company as a dispatcher and he came in one day complaining about the new girl they had hired at his office. Now understand, this guy could be totally obnoxious most of the time. He remarked how this girl was "built like a whale".
So I piped up and said, "Look whose talking! Look in the mirror and see who looks like a whale." He was quite obese himself.
He said, "Well, I'm built for comfort".
When I got home, I kept thinking about what this guy had the audacity to say, and I made up this little song for him to the tune of Okie from Mistokie. His name of Donnie.
Donnie tells me he was built for comfort.
I am trying to figure out just what that means.
So I looked it up in Webster's great big book
and nowhere does it say that comfort means obesity.
Helen
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Hi Mary Evelyn,
I looked at the Wikipedia article, David Bowie admitted he didn't like the song "Little Drummer Boy"
...it can be annoying to sing, probably...
The article also said Bowie was trying to be more normal at that time...(WHY?!) Why would anyone with so much vibrance and a career based on his uniqueness try to "be more normal"?
*****
Here's a prose poem I just wrote, I thought up a few lines earlier tonight, things sound better inside our heads, outside in the darkness, but trying to type up thoughts, I still write poems but don't post them in public as often...I hope people like it:
Grains of sand
are the backdrop of action,
all those specks...
are they afraid to be
struck by lightning
and become glittering glass?
Luminous, firmly formed,
shaped by heat,
unbendable,
strong,
always noticed,
clear.
Are you satisfied
just to be
sand-colored background
on which action happens?
Or do you want to be
the action?
Find the lightning
within yourself
to solidify
your vibrance.
by Kathleen VanBeekom, December 2012
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Here's one that has been a favorite of mine for years. There is a story behind this duet that you can read about HERE.
"Possibly one of the greatest Christmas duets of all time. This was Bing Crosby's final Christmas show. The track was recorded on 11 September 1977, Bing Crosby passed away on October 14, just over a month after recording the special. In the U.S., the show aired on 30 November 1977 on CBS."
Bing Crosby & David Bowie - Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth