Monday, March 28, 2016

Blog Flashback #5 - Ballonstof!


I realize that most of you who know me personally associate me with hot air ballooning very deeply, but if one reads the blog only, well, you wouldn't get that. (OK, fine. You don't get that in person, either). And yet one of my favorite blog-thangs is that a poem of mine initially shared here (and re-shared below) ended up in Ballonstof, the hot air ballooning magazine of the Netherlands.

It's a gorgeous, gorgeous magazine - and I know this because I got a year's subscription when my poem was acquired. I actually can't currently get to my copy of the magazine with my poem in it, sorry to say, but it was placed over an amazing shot of a balloon flying away. Beautiful.

The poem was found via a web search, by the way. And I'd always envisioned the poem about a kid who looses the string of their helium balloon. But it all worked perfectly in the magazine, and the whole experience showed me yet again how international blogging can be... and how happy accidents can come just by putting stuff out into the flow of the world. 

MY BALLOON
By
Greg Pincus

“Why, oh why, oh why, oh why????
Oh, please come back!” I moan and sigh.
I jumped but you had gone too high.
Now you’re flying in the sky.
I think I’m really gonna cry….
Goodbye, my poor balloon. Goodbye.


2 comments:

Joanne R. Fritz said...

Great story. I love that the editors found your poem through a web search and that it ended up in a magazine in the Netherlands. How do you say "congrats" in Dutch?

When my sons were young, they were given a toy remote-control blimp (don't ask) that could be filled with helium and flown around inside the house. But when we took it to a gift shop to get it filled with helium, we stepped outside the store and my husband let go of the blimp, quite by accident.

I've always wondered if it startled any low-flying aircraft.

Sarah Stevenson said...

Nice, Greg! Happy Blogiversary!