The Heart is Breakable
John Claiborne Isbell

Smokey Robinson and The Miracles,

‘The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage’

We all have sniffled, we’ve all shed a tear.

We’ve all wished for the gentle touch of love

to grace our cheek. We’ve all cried in the night,

for that is universal. It is clear

the heart is breakable. And as the dove

descends in fire, so at the edge of sight

may be an ear that hears us. This is where

we might find Smokey. As the sad guitar

comes twanging, a bell joins it and a voice –

it’s Smokey – launches English into air;

he’s going to rhyme. For like a burning star,

so, he’ll reduce his pain by his free choice

into perfection. Could we do as much?

I doubt it. Could we lift above the hurt

as if we climbed a ladder? Could we sing

such harmony? We all yearn for a touch –

some green oasis rising from the dirt

the day provides. Some cure for suffering.

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Fliss: Greetings, John, and well met! Thanks for rejoining us for the 12th issue.

John: Well met indeed! Twelve issues sounds to me like a year.

F: Well, we started on 1st April 2025, so we’re on our twelfth month now. Word-Bird is twirling!

J: Yes indeed, what with it being time for the March issue! It is quite exciting!

F: Exciting… and excellent! So here we are, with a poem inspired by a song by Smokey Robinson. And here’s W.-B. as usual, revving up the WM van and wondering where to take us this time. Where would you like to go?

J: Aha! We might go to Detroit, the Motor City or Motown, as it is known. Perhaps the van will take us to the 1960s, glory days for Detroit and when Smokey wrote this song.

F: John, insofar as the van is being driven by our friend W.-B., our location options are limitless! So here we are in Detroit, in the 1960s. What’s happening here?

J: Ah! Well, many people are making cars, with lots of chrome, I would expect. And Motown records is just getting started.

F: It seems a great time to park up! So here we are at the beginning of Motown. Was Smokey Robinson one of the earliest musicians, then? Smokey and his band?

J: A fair question! One Berry Gordy, music mogul, founded the label Tamla Records in 1959, soon reincorporating it as Motown Records, with Smokey Robinson, his friend and protégé, as vice-president by 1961. Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, however, recorded ‘Just a Mirage’ much later than I thought, in 1967. That was around Motown’s peak.

F: Yes, that seems familiar, from somewhere, possibly many years ago in A-Level Music! Is this a favourite song of yours, John? Does it hold particular resonance for you?

J: To be honest, I have a million favorite songs, but I do have an especial fondness for soul music, of which this is a fine example. All very bittersweet! And The Beatles thought highly of him. “Smokey Robinson was like God in our eyes,” McCartney said at the time. Lennon thought Smokey had a perfect voice.

F: We like The Beatles here too, John. That’s quite a couple of compliments there! W.-B. is wondering whether there’s a nod to the divine in your poem, where “the dove / descends in fire”, or perhaps that has more to do with human psychological pain?

J: A good question! The dove at its origin is the Holy Spirit, who descends in fire at Pentecost as I recall. But by now, being a dove, I think it can represent profane or human love as well as divine love. I like that ambiguity.

F: W.-B. is nodding now, as we continue to bop along to the tune. It’s certainly a sad guitar in the line-up. We also like “he’s going to rhyme”, the sense of purpose. We note that you, too, are rhyming, John, in a pattern we’re not sure we’ve come across until now. Is there a name for it, perhaps?

J: I’m glad W.-B. is enjoying it! It’s a fine song. I am indeed rhyming, but I don’t know a name for the pattern. It was fun to write!

F: And fun to read, we suggest! You’ve written in pentameter, we note too. And is this from a particular MS?

J: Yes, this is from Concerto for the Left Hand, a music MS. It stretches from Gregorian chant to Amy Winehouse. And this is indeed pentameter, you are quite right. I try to vary the caesura in my verse, and I fondly hope that there’s a certain music here to echo Smokey and The Miracles. We live in hope!

F: Hooray! Well, let’s have another listen, as we leave Detroit. Is there a good recording online?

J: Yes indeed! Here is a fine version, I think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv-IBeJPuoo

F: Thanks, John! Yes, this is excellent. Let’s all bop along as W.-B. drives us to our next stop, wherever that happens to be…

J: Let us by all means bop along! Our next stop could be almost anywhere… or anywhen!

W.-B.: Yeah!

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John Claiborne Isbell is a writer and now-retired professor currently residing in France with his wife Margarita. Their son Aibek lives in California with his wife Stephanie. John’s first book of poetry was Allegro (2018); he also publishes literary criticism, for instance An Outline of Romanticism in the West (2022) and Women Writers in the Romantic Age (April 2025), both available free online. John spent 35 years playing Ultimate Frisbee and finds it difficult not to dive for catches any more!

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The Heart is Breakable John Claiborne Isbell

The Heart is Breakable
John Claiborne Isbell