Erato in the Wings
 
for Jayne Osborn, Administrator at Eratosphere
 

 
Come join us on our roundabout!
No more dread and no more doubt!
Your average critter might
have little left to write
and every reason to refrain.
The only fee is Poetry.
The muse we choose
comes in the warm and winning form of Jayne.
 
Why did I schedule seven shows                                          
alone at St John’s? Heaven knows.
While I was still in bed
pretending to be dead,
the cavalry was on the train
to Waverley, saving me.
The star by far
came in the warm and winning form of Jayne.
 
Regardless of why inspiration runs dry,
no matter what Nemesis brings,
I’ll still have the friend I met at the Deep End.
There’ll always be Erato in the wings.
 
She carried me that afternoon
from hateful Hades to the moon.
She gave me so much space
things all fell into place.
And then she let me pick her brain,
a pantomime of rant and rhyme.
In short, support
came in the warm and winning form of Jayne.
 
Regardless of why consternation runs high,
no matter what Nemesis brings,
I’ll still have a friend on whom I can depend.
There’ll always be Erato in the wings.
 
The best advice she gave me was
to wink at my mistakes because
the audience was blind
to what I had in mind.
This tactic helped me lift the strain.
Even though I’d Steve & co.,
my chief relief
came in the warm and winning form of Jayne.
 
Regardless of why affirmation runs shy,
no matter what Nemesis brings,
I’ll still have this friend whose poem I, D., penned.
There’ll always be Erato in the wings.
 
Come join us on our roundabout!
No more dread and no more doubt!
Your average critter might
have little left to write
and every reason to refrain.
The only fee is Poetry.
The muse we choose
comes in the warm and winning form of Jayne.

Duncan Gillies MacLaurin

I made the acquaintance of Jayne Osborn when she joined Eratosphere, an online poetry community set up and generously run by Alex Pepple of the Able Muse Press, at the beginning of 2010. I myself joined Eratosphere in August 2005, and another poetry forum, The Sonnet Board, in February 2006. They have benefited me enormously. And not just in the quality and quantity of my verse. I have learnt a lot that I have subsequently used in my teaching and prose writing. I have also heard about publishing opportunities and made the acquaintance of a large number of other poets, some in person. Being part of a community of poets was something I’d previously lacked, mainly because I had chosen to settle abroad. Eratosphere is not a back-slapping forum, and beginners are discouraged from posting poems. There are two boards for workshopping metrical poetry. The regular one is called Metrical Poetry, while poems posted at the Deep End “should be well developed, not an early draft”, and commenters there are encouraged to remove their kid gloves. I met Jayne in person when she came to my first two shows for The Festival of Spirituality and Peace in Edinburgh in early August 2012. (The Festival changed its name to Just Festival the year after.) After a poor preview performance in St John’s Church at lunchtime, she helped me prepare for the late afternoon concert in the Chapel, my first ticketed show ever. Thanks to her, I was in a good state of mind when the curtain went up. Another poet from Eratosphere I hadn’t previously met, Nigel Mace, was there with his wife, the actor and playwright, Vanessa Rosenthal. And at the last moment, unannounced, my cousin Steve turned up along with his wife, Helen, and their son, Ben. My small, supportive audience lifted me, and I was happy with how it went. Steve made a recording. At the beginning of this year, a member of Eratosphere, William A. Baurle, was working on a poem in lavish praise of someone. Jayne jokingly remarked that she was waiting for someone to write a poem for her, and I was inspired to compose this piece. It is not only a tribute to her, but also to the muse of lyric poetry, Erato, as well as to Eratosphere itself. Although Eratosphere is usually called the Sphere on the site, another abbreviation for it is Erato, as in the site’s web address. As Jayne is its administrator, the forum is also invoked by the repetend in the verses of the song (“comes/came in the warm and winning form of Jayne”).

If you have any thoughts on this poetic tribute,  Duncan Gillies MacLaurin  would be pleased to hear them.