Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Bicycles, Tricycles or Unicycles



GirlonaBicycle-1987-SingaporeBotanicGardens-20060815.jpg
Girl on a Bicycle  (1987), by British sculptor Sydney Harpley 
in Singapore Botanic Gardens


"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live"
~Mark Twain, "Taming the Bicycle"

“Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.” 

"The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart." 
~Iris MurdochThe Red and the Green

When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. 




unicycle adventure expedition mongolia photo
Photo credit: Ken Looi, Adventure Unicyclist


Midweek Motif  ~ Bicycles, 
Tricycles or Unicycles 

This year is the 200th anniversary of the bicycle, introduced in  Germany in 1817.  The unicycle is a few decades newer and the tricycle is a few years older.  And, it may be International Bike Week or Month--or I may have the date wrong--but the idea of the event is to promote sustainable urban transportation.  For transport, for sport and for play--do you feel the push and pull of cycling?  

source
Your Challenge: There are far fewer poems with a cycling motif than  
there should be.  
Let's fix that!

🚲 🚲 🚲

by Pablo Neruda
. . . . 

A few bicycles
passed
me by,
the only
insects
in
that dry
moment of summer,
silent,
swift,
translucent;
they
barely stirred
the air.

Workers and girls
were riding to their
factories,
giving
their eyes
to summer,
their heads to the sky,
sitting on the
hard
beetle backs
of the whirling
bicycles
that whirred
as they rode by
bridges, rosebushes, brambles
and midday.
File:Tricykle (PSF).png
source

. . . . 

(Read the rest HERE.)




Dio Ed Io

Related Poem Content Details

. . . . 
There is a picture of Yves Klein leaping out of a window   
Above a cobblestone Paris street.   
A man on a bicycle peddles away toward the distance.   
One of them's you, the other is me.   

Cut out of the doctored photograph, however, the mesh net   
Right under the swan-diving body.   
Cut out of another print, the black-capped, ever-distancing cyclist, as well as the mesh net.   
Hmm . . . And there you have it, two-fingered sleight-of-hand man.   

One loses one's center in the air, trying to stay afloat,   
Doesn't one? Snowfalling metaphors.   
Unbidden tears, the off-size of small apples. Unshed.   
And unshedable.   

Such heaviness. The world has come and lies between us.   
Such distance. Ungraspable.   
Ash and its disappearance—   
Unbearable absence of being,   
                                           Tonto, then taken back.
(Read the rest HERE.)


Livingston Taylor - Bicycle - Green Bike in Hereford

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Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and 
visit others in the spirit of the community—

(Next week Susan’s Midweek Motif will be ~ Flowers.)
🚲 🚲 🚲

17 comments:

  1. Thank you for another interesting prompt - we got stuck on the wheels!

    ReplyDelete
  2. HAPPY Wednesday every one, i am sooo early, came in before the post was up...then left and came back in again

    much love...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Welcome to all Poets. Let's meet out there on the road!
    This is the first poem I wrote in a week, and it's a change of pace for me. Fun. I'll be in and out throughout the day. Have a fine one!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Have written a couple of poems earlier involving bikes, one about a hit and run bike accident. Today am sharing a conversation from Phantom Road. Will be around later to read..have a lovely day poets!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am so thrilled about this prompt I wrote my poem yesterday! Lol! I thought I'd be first to post but obviously you guys get up earlier than I do. I get up at 7am every day but go through email and such first.

    I have a few poems about bicycles on CP but could stand to write more. I haven't done my article on BWB yet either. I was busy biking on Bike To Work Day which was on my birthday and need to get that article up.

    I know I've been sporadic with showing up lately this year has just been busy! I'll be around to read I can't wait to see what everyone writes about my favorite subject.

    Thanks Susan! Group hug!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You really are involved with cycling! I'm pleased to bring you a prompt that has your name on it.

      Delete
  6. Posted my abstract interpretation! Thanks, Rob

    ReplyDelete
  7. Happy Wednesday, everyone!! Coming back to read others tomorrow! Goodnight from this side of the world all.
    Thanks Susan, for the prompt. Thoroughly enjoyed writing on my favourite topic...!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, your favorite topic! You are amazing.

      Delete
  8. Oh my goodness, it is four p.m. here, and I only now realized it is Wednesday. Now THAT is what we call living on Tofino Time....LOL.........

    ReplyDelete
  9. Let's not forget those Likes and G+'s.

    ReplyDelete

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