Well, now, this is weird. I have several Google alerts set up, one of which is for "Jan Jones". Normally I skim through the entries (you have no idea how many Jones-related stories there are out there, and there are even more in January) and delete the mail. This morning I was sitting at the PC with a nice cup of tea when I saw my name followed by the first lines of a poem I'd written. But it was a poem I didn't know was out there!
She's put a good photo with it - not an image I'd had in mind while writing the poem, but then the joy of poetry is that we're free to make our own interpretations - but I'd dearly love to know where she saw the poem first!
Here it is - and here is Vikki Jacobs' blogpost
The Time Between by Jan JonesTreasure it, the time spent travelling
This time between roles
The time between
Slipping from one existence into another
A spider strand of no-man’s-land
The time between
You’re no-one hereInvisible, unfettered
Not pressured
Treasure it, this time spent travelling
This time between arenas
This time between.
.
10 comments:
Fab poem. Very atmospheric. Well worth more exposure, wherever it came from - although it would be interesting to know where it did come from...
Thanks, Susan. Hopefully when California wakes up, Vikki will tell me!
Lovely poem Jan, glad you shared it. How nice that someone else liked it enough to post it too.
Hi Jan!
Vikki Jacobs here. I followed your trail... Congratulations on the publication of your first novel! What a great accomplishment!
I replied to your message on my blog as well, but here is the link to your poem on the NY Times site:
jump here
I had done a search for "train poem" to go with my photo of the day. And a page came up of poems people had submitted to the NY Times per a request they put our for poems about love on trains. Here is that page as well:
jump here
Interestingly the photo they have in the article is similar to mine! It's not an uncommon angle I guess.
I love poetry, and I use what I find online more and more frequently it seems in my daily blog posts when I can't find the words within me to describe the feeling that my photo brings to me. Here's another example of that:
jump here
For me, as I did the post production editing on my picture, it got me to thinking about travel, and how romantic travel in general can be. So your poem seemed a great fit. For me, it spoke of the feeling of disconnecting, and maybe re-inventing yourself for a short time... and we can do this when we travel, since no one knows us...
Thanks again!
Vikki
Great poem. And I enjoyed following the trail to solve the mystery of how a woman in California used a poem of yours that you'd forgotten about.
I notice that Vikkijac says the link is from the New York Times but actually it is the British Times. Whatever!
OH! How awfully Ameri-centric of me! I see "The Times" and only think of one! Obviously I was only looking at the content...
Thanks for the correction!
Just proves the Internet is properly international!
Lovely poem, Jan - and wow that it's in the Times :o)
A wonderful poem, Jan. And it's in The Times. Wow!
Glad you liked the poem, Kate and Shirley. But it does bring home to you the longevity of anything on the Internet, doesn't it?
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