Route 6, Poetry Prompts, and Driving

Route 6, Poetry Prompt, and Driving

The summer after my youngest son Chris learned to drive and before he got his own car we would drive back and forth from Cape Cod together nearly every week end.

We were driving up from the Cape one Sunday at the beginning of the summer when Chris decided to turn on the radio. I usually listen to NPR when I drive back and forth, but Chris lacks my devotion to talk radio, and so we looked for some music.

Not surprisingly, if you're familiar with Cape Cod radio stations, we found nothing in particular of interest, and Chris ended up searching through my meager collection of tapes. At the time, about ten years ago, my car had no CD player and my tapes were largely oldies rock; we found "Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits" was the only mutually acceptable choice.

We ended up playing the tape on nearly every trip we made to and from the Cape that summer. It got to the point where even I could remember the words to most of the songs. We did make a half-hearted attempt to look for more tapes and didn't find much, so we just kept playing the same one over and over.

I really like Fleetwood Mac and that particular tape really has some great songs but I'm happy to say that my new car has a CD player.

The poem below was written in response to the April, 2010 day 25 prompt on Robert Lee Brewer’s blog. The prompt: write a poem inspired by a song, and to include song title and artist. Most of the songs in the poem below are from Chicago’s album, “Chicago 17.” In order to end the poem in the way I wanted to, I had to use one song from BoyzIIMen. The poem appeared in Summer, 2010 issue of Cyclamens and Swords .



Road Work

Cars creep along Route 6,
sign reads,
Road construction
Expect delays,
while Chicago's "Stay the Night"
blares on my radio.

Headlights illuminate
bits of fog,
rain blows through
open window
while Peter or Bill
sings "Remember the Feeling."

Swig cold coffee,
get a mouthful of grounds
as "Something About You"
drifts out my window.

Jacket's wet,
no place to pull over
while someone's singing
"Something was Wrong."

Car cuts in front of me,
I stand on my brakes.
Chicago's crooning
"Please Hold On."

Sirens sing
up the highway
while Boyz II Men belt out
"End of the Road."


Here's one involving Fleetwood Mac and Route 6 both:

Somewhere Along

Somewhere along the Cape Highway
Fleetwood Mac chooses lovers
on the car radio.

Somewhere along the Canal Road
between I'm starving and We can't stop
heavy air beats through open windows.

Somewhere forty minutes down Route Six
driving ten miles over the speed limit
lies the stone of us.

Margaret Fieland is one of six authors of the poetry anthology, "Lifelines" available from Amazon.com tinyurl.com/LifeLinesPoetry