For Word and Question 13
A capitol city where nobody lives
A miner’s town long ago and forgotten
A small place to which no one ever drives
Where the fishing’s good, but the weather’s rotten
And here I sit amidst a den of thieves
Drinking away sorrows that just won’t leave
Living here requires a certain state of mind
A level of insanity to which I just can’t climb
Named for a prospector who bought votes with beer
Drinking’s an official tradition of those who live here
He’s now buried in the town that bears his name
You can’t get away, no matter how you came
Juneau, that capitol of the last frontier
And yes, thank you, I think I’ll have one more beer
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Place: Juneau
Question: Another beer?
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+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't until I read this that I realised I didn't expect anyone to write a poem about the place he was given as a prompt--despite it being the obvious strategy. =P Did you have to do a bit of research or is Juneau much better known than I thought?
I like the sad, nostalgic atmosphere of this poem. It's almost like the "last call" for Juneau as well as for the speaker. And yet the poem is depressing: it makes me want to see the place for myself. The idea of its requiring "a certain state of mind" sounds like a challenge to me! I don't want to let Juneau drink me under the table!
E,
ReplyDeleteI knew some of it and had to look up some of it. But then I would hope I knew more about Juneau than the average person, since it is the capitol of my home state.
Indeed, I laughed when I realized what city you'd gotten. If I'd gotten Atlanta, oh the fun it would've been.
ReplyDeleteI really like the image this conjures in my head. Dirty, slushy streets, dive bars, old prospecting shacks, crooked politicians, and beer, the one constant that makes everything bearable.
+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteI had no idea it was your home state, J! Were you happy to get it or had you been hoping for something more exotic?
I'm not much of a beer drinker, so I didn't get Dauvit's impression of beer as "the one constant that makes everything bearable," but now that I've read his perspective, the poem does seem cheerier!
makes me think of the old wild west. love how the end leaves me with a big HA!
ReplyDeleteI so enjoyed how you set this up as a puzzle; as I read I kept musing about where this capital might be... And then in the last stanza: the answer, which compelled me to reread the whole poem again in its light. Bravo! (and I agree with others' comments above too)
ReplyDeleteI too researched and focused on the place, and its history, in my poem.
Juneau was my place, and I threw it into the game because my son is stationed on a Coast Guard cutter that periodically docks there. It's interesting to get a "local" perspective, since he is decidedly transient. I really like what you did with this. "Where the fishing is good, but the weather's rotten." Yes.
ReplyDelete