For Musical Notes Prompt #4: Final Tuesday Free For All http://1sojournal.wordpress.com/
Percival?*
If I had been born
a man
I might have been
that one
who ran around
tilting at windmills.
Instead, I’m a woman
who stands in the gap
between a word
and an image,
daring with fingers
to freeform
the feelings
which fill up
pulsating spaces.
Elizabeth Crawford 8/30/12
*Translated, the name Percival means Pure Fool
Today’s inspiration comes from Gordon Lightfoot’s Don Quixote 1972
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZySoo0TIT4
Notes: This is the last verse of an older much longer piece of poetry titled Standing In The Gap. I was a huge Gordon Lightfoot fan and this is my favorite of his songs. I periodically listen to it, but until I began doing the Musical Notes Poetry Prompts, I wasn’t fully aware of how much the man had influenced me. I found it very easy to relate to his mixture of folk, myth, legend, and history. Percival was the youngest of the Knights of The Round Table, and the only one to accomplish the Grail Quest. It took him twenty years to earn a second chance. His story is often mixed with that of The Fisher King. Although this is the verse that most strongly relates to Lightfoot’s song, it also mimics, on some level, his mixture of folk myth, legend, and history. The entire poem may be found here:
https://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/standing-in-the-gap/
Soul's Music 
I love this soliloquy – “if I were a man”….and “because I’m a woman” and I ADORE “who stands in the gap between a word and an image”. Perfection, Elizabeth!
High praise Sherry, thank you. I first heard the phrase ‘standing in the gap’ in relation to the prophets of the Old Testament who stood in the gap between God and His People. Since I also believe that today’s poets are the prophets of this age, it seemed like a fitting use for the phrase. In the song Lightfoot sings of the horseman moving like a hawk on the wing. The hawk is one of my totems and it symbolizes the energy of the spiritual messenger because ‘on the wing’ it is suspended between earth and heaven. I am amazed that I wrote this poem with so little awareness of where it was coming from. The subconscious is a wondrous thing.
Elizabeth
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Yes, I like what you did…really nice!
Thank you Annell, I do like to take out these old pieces on occasion and it worked for the free for all prompt today of no rules. I am liking the challenge of the music as inspiration. It has been that all of my life.
Elizabeth
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Elizabeth…that line of standing in the gap. Oh, it’s perfect! And as I scrolled down to leave a comment I’ve seen you responded to another re: the OT reference to standing in the gap, which I also caught, as I read your poem. Gap-filling is SO important!! Lovely, lovely piece. ~Paula
Thank you Paula. As I listened to the song, then went back to the poem, I realized that there are layers of meaning here, especially on a personal level. The horseman in the song sees the inequality all around, as well as the irony in much of human existence, and that neither changes a great deal over time. I’m glad I chose to relisten to this old favorite, it is helping me remember those things that are important,
Elizabeth
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Standing between words and image .. ah thats a wonderful expression and i think a blessed palce to be .. love this 🙂
Thank you. I think anyone who seriously commits to being a writer must stand in that gap, not always a comfortable place to exist, but certainly one that has its own rewards.
Elizabeth
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