One Wonderful Sunday

[MorpheusSandman]

One Wonderful Sunday
I was reminded of a moment from childhood;
My cousin and I would sit
side-by-side
In my dad’s old La-z-Boy recliner
And watch TV -
A TV in a big, brown box.
A favorite was the 1960s Peter Pan with Mary Martin.
Everytime we’d come to the scene with Tinkerbell,
The one where she’s near death,
Peter would beg the audience to clap and save her.
We always did.
She always lived.
But Mary Martin wasn’t Peter;
She grew up
And died.
Eventually we noticed Tink lived
Even if we didn’t clap.

[PrinceMyshkin]

One Wonderful Sunday
I was reminded of a moment from childhood;
My cousin and I would sit
side-by-side
In my dad’s old La-z-Boy recliner
And watch TV -
A TV in a big, brown box.
A favorite was the 1960s Peter Pan with Mary Martin.
Everytime we’d come to the scene with Tinkerbell,
The one where she’s near death,
Peter would beg the audience to clap and save her.
We always did.
She always lived.
But Mary Martin wasn’t Peter;
She grew up
And died.
Eventually we noticed Tink lived
Even if we didn’t clap.

What a wonderful personal account of what some have called "the fortunate fall" apropos the 'original sin' of partaking of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge! In this case, from the blessed innocence of childhood to the richer or at least more nuanced awareness of tragic reality.

[Lynne50]

Oh, PrinceMyskin,
Loved the poem and boy did it bring back memories. I, too, loved that production of Peter Pan. I always started jumping on all the furniture when Peter was "crowing" on the bed. ER,er, er er!!!



Sorry, MorpheusSandman, I gave credit to the wrong poet. My apologies.

[a_little_wisp]

Well hey there, Dream King. First, I should like to say that you have dreams and poetry in your blood. The last two lines gave me the chills. Moving in the tangible, very familiar world, you suddenly reveal in those last two lines (and completely and happily contrasting with the three before it), that something lies beneath the surface of that world that helps us dreamers... mm... I dunno - remember how to hold magic in our hearts. <3 I love Peter Pan too.

Thanks for sharing!! This was great!

[The Walker]

I really liked it. It touched my heart!
I always loved Peter Pan too, but I met him when i was old enough as to clap for tinkerbell :(.

[AdrianLeverkuhn]

Brilliance! The ending is perfect.

[MorpheusSandman]

Thanks very much for all the comments. A small FYI: The title is an illusion to a 1947 film by Akira Kurosawa I recently watched. If you can believe it, there's a moment in the film that's very reminiscent of the one in Peter Pan and it actually DID remind me of it; after that, the poem wrote itself.

[AdrianLeverkuhn]

Kurosawa is great though I haven't seen that one. The earliest of his works that I've seen is Drunken Angel. His first movie with Mifune.

[MorpheusSandman]

Kurosawa is my favorite director and since I've seen all of his major films I'm now working on that "Post-War Kurosawa" set from Criterion; it certainly shows his humble roots with only flashes of the brilliance to come; he's mostly dealing directly with the dire post-war Japanese society which he would handle much more allegorically and brilliantly later with films like Drunken Angel, Stray Dog, and, especially, Seven Samurai.