Zest 4 Life

The word of the week has to be appetence. It's also the given theme for the blog. Like my fellow Dead Good Bloggers I wasn't exactly sure of its meaning.

After consulting a few wise tomes, the consensus appears to be that appetence derives from Latin, appetere (to seek after) and means something along the lines of: a longing or desire; a natural or instinctive inclination; an attraction or affinity. Yes, that makes perfect sense.

On a stunningly sunny Saturday in the jewel of the north, I shall choose to interpret appetence as a zest for life, a taking pleasure in just being, the rare ability to enjoy the moment (whatever moment that might be) and make it resonate. As my friend Ted Bruner sings: "If you're happy, cool - 'cos that's all there is...."

I'm not advocating thoughtless hedonism; rather a seeking after such simple fulfilment as brings happiness to oneself, does harm to no-one and possibly even makes others happy too. There are many ways to shine...

This is a zestful little poem I've been working on for a while, finished in time for the next Dead Good Poets' open mic night (Friday 8th June) when the theme is Midsummer Night Dreams.

Lemons
Midsummer moon climbed pale
over Jenne
even before the last hint
of citrus had left the sky.
Twilight pipistrelles
swung and swooped their feasting hour
above the lemon grove and you
my dusky beauty
slipped into the sloping garden
like a ghost in bosky gloom
to stand uncertain by the gate
until our eyes
and then our bodies met.

Crushing an aromatic carpet
beneath those lemon trees
in unpeeling,
dress over head, shorts off,
you shy but sure, me marvelling
at your fragrance and your form,
we rekindled earlier passions
with urgent mouth to mouth affections,
grasping, clutching, cleaving,
caressing limbs and lips,
bruising separate bodies into one
until we lay
spent and tingling in the dark.

We cradled in our pleasure,
smiling with no need for words
and gazed up at pale lemon fruit
hanging bowered among
glossy almost-blue leaves
until a bell tolling the hour
advised us not to stay
and midnight's cooling breath
shivered our skin.

I wanted to leave you with another musical bonus this week, 'Shine' by the US band Wondermints. They are a frequent accompaniment to my trips to the gym. All I could find on YouTube was the complete album (which is fab, by the way). Nevertheless, if you click on the hyperlink and then fast-forward the time-bar to 18:05 you will find the four-and-a-half minutes of aural splendour that is 'Shine': Pop A Wondermint

Pip! Pip! I hope you liked the blog. Thanks for reading, Steve ;-)