The River Road

Over the years I've made a few stabs at writing poetry. There are very few that I felt were successful. I love poetry so much, why can't I write it? In all the sorting and tossing I've been doing, I found this attempt from thirty three years ago - October, 1988. I remember that day though I'd forgotten all the details and that I had put them down in a poetic attempt. 

 

The River Road

For sixteen days and nights of glory

The 24th Olympics stole you away

TV and VCR grinding, recording, intoning

You sat like a cat waiting for a mouse

Hypnotized, mesmerized, while I 

Drifted, alone, around the house

Finally, blessedly, the games were over

All the gold, silver, and bronze won, or forfeited

You blinked, remembered me, gestered to atone

Autumn skies were sunny - the color of

"October's bright blue weather"

It didn't matter what we did

As long as we did it together

The road out of the city took us quickly

To the colorful countryside

You didn't know our destination

Content to just relax and ride

The map in my mind was one of memory

And fragments of a story about a ghost town

Chance and curiosity and luck

Led us to the river road

We followed it for miles stopping

To take photos and exchange smiles

We talked and kissed and gathered weeds

We drove and laughed and got lost

Then found our way back to the ghost town

We'd already driven through

     Lost in the trees along the river

     Lost to the dreams of years gone by

     Lost to the passing whims of fate 

     Platted to be a metropolis

     Nothing now but old buildings and memories

      ..........  Fraser ......

I saw my dream store there, roof sagging

Windows broken and boarded; weed choked

I asked you if we could buy it

I would fix it up and sell antiques

You would fish in the river

We drove home in the Autumn twilight

Dreaming dreams and planning plans

Two middle aged lovers looking forward

To growing old together

The Olympics forgotten, folded into the record books

-- for another four years

Yes, the Summer Olympics were held in fall in 1988, from September 17 to October 2. It was the first time South Korea hosted them.

My poem affirms that I did take photos that day, but where they are now?? Most likely in another box yet to be found.

Fraser, Iowa is located along the Des Moines River while the river photo I used above is one I took in June of the Cedar River. Fraser was founded in 1893 as a coal mining town and named for two brothers, investors in the Boone Valley Coal and Railway Company.

I found this photo of Fraser, showing some of the miners' homes, in the Boone County Historical website.

I can tell from the marks I made on the first three lines of my 'poem' that I was attempting to keep track of meter, rhyming, breaks, accented and unaccented syllables - the whole enchilada - but that didn't last long. Maybe I meant to get the ideas down and then go back and work on shaping it into a 'real' poem. That is something I could still do, I suppose, but I think I'd rather spend that time looking for those photos I took that day.

I still remember what the building looked like - the one of my dream antique shop. 

And this is how we looked in October, 1988.

"Two middle aged lovers, looking forward

to growing old together."