Kristin Mari Schiesswohl White is competing this year in one of the toughest events in one of the toughest sports. Ironman Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii. My Mari was my training partner for this race. Unfortunately I will not be with her this year due to an accident in April which nearly killed me. Mari, however, is in top form and has made me proud by winning several races already this year.
To express my pride and confidence in as well as my deep love, I have written the following 10 sonnets for her. Go Mari! Go win!
Sonnets for Mari at Kona
by Scott Ennis
written in a single session on 9/28/2010
I. From Scott’s Heart to Mari’s
II. Go Win Mari
III. Queen Mari
IV. Kona’s End
V. Swim Mari
VI. Mari Rides
VII. Mari’s Finish
VIII. Mari Grows
IX. Dear Mari
X. I Love You, Mari
I. From Scott’s Heart to Mari’s
Dear Mari, you have trained and so have I
You’ve trained to swim, to bike, to run, to win
I’ve trained to live and love and almost die
You came to me and helped me to begin
A second turn at life; you gave me hope
You gave me love, I felt you give me all
your love. You helped my broken body cope
with life and death and things I thought were small
I learned to give my friendship to my friend
I learned my friend had love enough for me.
My Mari held my hand and kept the end
away from anything that I might see.
I love you Mari, all you’ve taught your man
Now go and win your race; I know you can!
II. Go Win Mari
Dear Mari, you have trained; I watched you train
you trained to swim, to bike, to run, to win
I love to watch the way you use your brain,
your greatest asset, go use it again
Remember how you trained, remember “us”
remember how we trained and how our trust
in one another moved us both and thus
became each race we won and more than just
our races, you became my life, my love
I know you, know your body, you can win
I know the win is what you’re thinking of
You know your body: out and in.
I love your strength, your beauty; I love you.
Go win your race; go do what you can do.
III. Queen Mari
Dear Mari, we are close, you know my heart
you gave me life when death was at my door
I know your heart as well, I feel I’m part
of you, although you know I’m feeling poor.
My strength is gone, I give it all to you
My life is love and both are yours to use
Go win your race, believe you cannot lose
I’ve raced beside your beauty and I’ve felt
your grace within and felt your strength without
Triathlon was made for you and dealt
a fight called Kona, you will win this bout
I love you and believe you’re great, a queen
and all who watch will realize what they’ve seen.
IV. Kona’s End
Dear Mari, I am Scott, your closest friend
You know me, we have trained for race and race
I’ve seen you at the start and at the end
I’ve seen you in the first and greatest place
The greatest place I’ve seen you by my side
when death thought it could kill me but you came
and helped me turn back death, you are my pride
because I know again, you’d do the same.
But now your fight is on Hawaii’s shore
I wish I could be with you in the sun
I wish I could train with you and much more
I want to hold my lover once you’re done
Dear Mari, I believe in you, my friend
I’ll find a way to be at Kona’s end.
V. Swim Mari
Dear Mari, I can feel you swim, you’re wet
DeRuyter was a place to park my Jeep
the back was where I knew the warmth we’d get
and laying down with you was not for sleep.
But when we started swimming from the dam
I watched your muscles ripple and you stream
into the water, where I think I am.
When I’m consigned to have you in a dream
Nd there in Kona’s ocean I will keep
my love for you alive and how you slip
through salty water; I may be asleep
but I will hope within my dream you’ll dip
and thus you’ll feel my rhythm and you’ll slide
through Kona’s water; I’ll be by your side
VI. Mari Rides
Dear Mari, are there hills in Kona’s rock?
Remember, we did hills in New York too
Virginia’s hills are nothing but a mock
that tried to kill me, but I lived for you.
Your legs on hills are beautiful to me
I think of strength within your silky legs
I think about the shower, think of “we”
of “us” and of my voice and how it begs
to be the balm upon your strength, your skin
Your strength is what I felt and what will pull
you up the hills of Kona, to your win
the pain will only be a moment, dull,
the ride is just another brick, and we
can ride through any brick, you’ll see, you’ll see!
VII. Mari’s Finish
Dear Mari, it’s the finish of the race
Skunk Cabbage, ARC, or Durkee, take your pick.
You’ll feel your legs get settled in your pace;
You’ll see the other women getting sick.
You taught your man to run; he loves you still
for how you kicked his ass on every road
You’re better running up, up every hill
Than anyone I know, I’ve known, I knowed!
The first time you invited me to run
my ass was handed to me on a plate
and now each time I hear a starting gun
I look for Mari, she is never late
Go show these hicks the way to run is in
those sexy legs of yours. Go Mari, win!
VIII. Mari Grows
Dear Mari, you are strong and fast and all
you need to be to win, I’ve watched you grow
You used to be a runner, that is all
but now your other needs are never slow
I’ve watched you swim the island and the dam
DeRuyter is a special place for you
because you found your speed and what I am
Deruyter is a place our friendship grew
I’ve watched you swim, you swim like you were made
to live in water, beauty is your form
in Cazenovia I would have stayed
If I could always feel and hold you, warm.
In pool or lake or ocean, I can see
Your form, your stroke, you’re staring after me!
IX. Dear Mari
Dear Mari, I have life because of you
there’s nothing I can do to pay the debt
I love the way we’ve trained, the way we grew
I love the memories I can’t forget.
Dear Mari, you are heading for your race
I wish I could be constant, by your side
I’d love to swim and ride at Mari’s pace
I’d love to run behind you; be my guide.
Dear Mari, you are more than dear to me
I worship you, it’s true, I sing your praise
If all the years I’ve left could somehow be
Spent all with you, I’d trade them for the days
when we were once in love, so deep and true
When I first learned that “Us” was “me” and “you.”
X. I Love You, Mari
Dear Mari, you are all, I love you dear
I know that life has cheated me of days
When I could hold you tight and hold you near
When we we could make our love in endless ways
I want you now to win at Kona’s race
because I want the best in life for you
I want to hold the beauty of your face
and kiss your lips; it’s what I want to do
Dear Mari, I will write my love each day
I have to be without you, let the rhyme
of sonnets find the meaning and the way,
let me return to Mari, in due time.
I love you Mari, you are precious dear
I’ll love to say I love you when you’re here.