Sunday in Golden Gate Park

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BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Sunday in Golden Gate Park

#1 Post by BobBradshaw » 26 May 2018, 21:04

Sunday in Golden Gate Park


The day lilies lifted their trumpets
the way the Navy band

lifted theirs in Golden Gate Park
on that Sunday afternoon,

the John Philip Sousa marches
carrying us along—

into the Japanese
tea garden where koi drifted,

their patterns of scales as bright
as spring kimonos

--and later into each
other's arms.

Eight weeks later
I keep ringing your phone,

but the messages I leave
are unanswered prayers.

You’re like a book I borrowed
and lost the same day,

and which I search for
everywhere.

I trail women who look nothing
like you except for their

yards of blonde hair
into the Academy of Sciences,

the Asia Art Museum,
the De Young...

On Sundays I inevitably
drop by the bandstand

but the only ones on stage
are pigeons bobbing their heads

as if recalling previous
park performances.

You're never there
among the rows of benches,

where I sit for hours—
near the empty fountain,

my hopes, coins spent
eight weeks ago.

Kenneth2816
Posts: 1619
Joined: 01 Jun 2008, 09:17

Re: Sunday in Golden Gate Park

#2 Post by Kenneth2816 » 27 May 2018, 13:56

Damn.This is good

FranktheFrank
Posts: 1983
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 18:07
Location: Between the mountains and the sea

Re: Sunday in Golden Gate Park

#3 Post by FranktheFrank » 27 May 2018, 14:52

Bandstand, one word.

my hopes [are] coins spent
or
my hopes, coins spent
eight weeks ago.
the John Philip Sousa marches
carrying us along—
How about: John Phillips plays Sousa marches
or
Sousa marches from John Phillips' band

Very sad poem.

The agony of a lost love, or a love lost
it sure hurts' doesn't it.

Bernie01
Posts: 777
Joined: 30 Jul 2015, 11:14

Re: Sunday in Golden Gate Park

#4 Post by Bernie01 » 27 May 2018, 18:48

Bob---

terrific.

atmospheric and yet built on details and stark, clear images...

that lost book, especially those pigeons, the spent coins at the end...


just those plurals at the end:

my hopes are coins
tossed weeks ago.





(You will remember the hit tune and movie, three coins in the fountain...


https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/v ... tion=click

1954




bernie

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Sunday in Golden Gate Park

#5 Post by BobBradshaw » 28 May 2018, 08:02

Thanks so much, guys.....Bob

IndianaDP
Posts: 181
Joined: 24 Mar 2018, 16:53

Re: Sunday in Golden Gate Park

#6 Post by IndianaDP » 31 May 2018, 20:17

Very nice Bob,

I wonder perhaps, pennies instead of coins. Like Bernie I thought, Three Coins in a Fountain. For me that’s distracting, but perhaps this connection was your intent.

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Sunday in Golden Gate Park

#7 Post by BobBradshaw » 31 May 2018, 23:31

Thx, Dale

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