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Sunday 10 July 2011

Sister Sports

Canoeing on land,
we came to call it.
Post war, the traffic
building daily
exponentially,
the "quiet" roads choked;
cyclists in their droves
turning to the river
for the peace we craved.


Canoe and cycle,
road and waterway
appealed to the same
folk, more or less;
had much in common:
the primacy of
balance; the tyre's hiss
as mesmerising as
the splash of paddle.


Life's slower pace and
learning how to read:
maps, water, weather;
closeness to each other,
to water or the road -
and more so to the
natural world. But
even better, both
sports offered racing.

The Poetry Jam challenge for this week week is to write a poem on a favourite sport.

16 comments:

Louise said...

Wonderful - loved the line about the quiet roads choked.

Rachel Green said...

lovely.
It brought to me a sense of peaceful melancholy.

Brian Miller said...

ha...some wonderful lines in here david...still finding my muse on this jam, but you just gave me a little traction...

CiCi said...

Racing, eh? Going fast. Speeding. On land and on water. I get the sister sports thing.

Hannah Stephenson said...

And now you should submit it here!

http://www.stymiemag.com/

They specialize in lit about sports...

The Bug said...

I guess canoeing is the gentler sister :)

Christine said...

Both are at one with nature, nice.

Helen said...

Dave, in the part of Oregon where I live cycling and canoeing reign supreme ~ both the leisurely and racing varieties ... loved your Jam poem.

Anonymous said...

a lovely tableau

Scarlet said...

love life's quiet pace....

nice work ~

Windsmoke. said...

Not only do these sports offer racing they also offer fitness and the social aspect sadly lacking in today's obese society :-).

Mary said...

ah, canoeing and cycling are both life sports! I enjoyed this poem.

Carl said...

I love the peace of being on a bike or a boat on a lake almost as much as I love to hike in the woods. Wonderful descriptions in tis poem.

Lolamouse said...

Lovely description of these sports. It is sad how our roads have become so choked we sit in traffic and breath in fumes every day without giving it a second thought. It would be wonderful if we could bike to work, but, alas, I think I would be squished like a bug if I tried to ride on the highways around here!

Dave King said...

120 Socks
It seems surprising now to reflect how early it was when that began to happen.

Leatherdykeuk
Ah, roughly what first cycling then canoeing did for me.

Brian
Yes, it didn't seem very conducive on my first encounter, in fact not until the idea of comparing two occurred.

TechnoBabe
Yup, I was always inconsistent.

Hannah
Thanks for that. I will certainly have a look.

The Bug
It depends, what you're doing in the canoe, but in general, yes - probably!

Christine
Exactly. You have it! Thanks.

Helen
I'm moving to Oregon! Definitely!

hull of a city
Much thanks.

Heaven
Welcome to the blog. Much appreciate the comment.

Windsmoke
They do indeed. Absolutely.

Mary
Very mmany thanks for the comment.

Carl
Yes, I think the walk has it, but you can cover more ground - and in the case of the canoe, see things from a different perspective. To be honest, if I'd found canoeing first, I doubt I would ever have taken to the bike.

Lolamouse
Yes, it's very sad that no one has yet come up with a viable solution. Thanks for the thought.

Dr. Jeanne Iris said...

Oh, I love this, Dave! The road and the water, each lead us on our journeys of experience and the creation of memories. Great contribution to the prompt!