“Up, up and away in my beautiful balloon …” a pice from one of my favorite bits of music when I was in my troubled teens. From a chatty kid, I became a quiet introverted adolescent, living my days reading, listening to music and writing dark poetry.
No on seemed to know the troubles I’d seen and few were interested, let’s face it, when you’re blue, people usually don’t know how to cope with you.
Finally one day I made a friend in art class, he was about as introverted as I. We spent afternoons together mostly talking about our problems, eating potatoe chips and drinking coffee.
I discovered that his problems were harder to bear than mine. He was gay … and in the 60s that was hard, maybe even harder than it is today. We got our fill of needed talk and began to work on our art projects, listening to music and generally moving onwards.
I heard “A Beautiful Balloon” for the first time with him and when I hear it I think of him …
through dark years
a beautiful balloon flies
destination – joy
(c) G.s.k. ’14
Linked to Ligo Haibun
Bastet and Sekhmet's Library 
What a wonderful piece Georgia! 🙂
It’s in art class where I made my only lasting friends too. The one place where it seemed to be “safe” to be a bit weird, a bit dark, a bit “out of place”. Some happy hours with those kids. Thank goodness for Facebook to be able to reconnect with a few of them. (One of whom is a Philly tattoo artist living with his two cats – and just as outspoken as ever. His posts are a hoot.)
Anyway – could really relate to this one — and the haiku is a great cap. 🙂
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Thanks … and I knw what you mean. My son, who went to art school (here kids start specializing at high school age … and he went to an art institute) blossomed ater being shy and bullied all throughout elementary and middle school. Best choice we ever made. Lucky you were able to keep in touch with those kids and Viva Facebook! Glad you enjoyed the haibun!
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What lovely haibun, Georgia! I m glad you had each other during those dark days…funny that I was looking at my adolescent poetry tonight…it was so dark…no one cared to listen really…so I became the listner. It is nice to read that you were there for your friend…coming out in the 60`s and 70`s was dangerous. Even today youths who call our line, are the ones most at risk of suicide…so vulnerable and worried about parents reaction and of course kids can be cruel. I love that son you chose…birngs me back to nice times:)
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I don’t know f he ever actually came out .. we were close friends and he trusted me … I know what you mean when you say you became a listener because no one listened to you … know that path well. Glad you enjoyed the haibun.
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What starts as a delightful insight, a little trip down memory lany suddenly becomes a plea for humanity and takes a serious tone. A haibun well-worth reading I thought. Really one that creates thoughts and memories.
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Thanks Hamish … I usually go in the opposite direction … you put up a great prompt … looking forward to the next one!
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http://hamishgunn.booklikes.com/post/1035833/ligo-haibun-challenge-word-prompt-week …um…moved it..had some difficulties..
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Thanks! I didn’t get the notification!
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Sorry!
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Ach, not to worry … probably a WP thing (and I would probably have found the new prompt reading Jen’s haibun 😉 )
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