Cowboy Bebop: A Poem for the Bebop

You’re Gonna Carry That Weight

A warning for the uninitiated: this is not a conventional review of Shinichiro Watanabe’s immortal Cowboy Bebop. As a part-time poet, I saw an opportunity to blend my passions after sitting down to watch the complete 1998 animated series—and 2001’s Knocking on Heaven’s Door.

I sat with the show for some time, and wrote a poem, with Yoko Kanno’s melancholic “Waltz for Zizi” as the background track of my life. The show hit me like a prairie oyster and a subsequent gut punch, left me on the floor in a near-catatonic state of existential dread. Somewhere in the serialized adventures of Spike, Jet, and Faye lies a deeply human longing—to let go of the past, and begin again. To find yourself in the present moment, alive and forever in flux. Though, we often grip tightly, recklessly, to a rose-colored version of the past, and refuse to move on.

Now, I cannot say that the following poem perfectly encapsulates Watanabe’s pertinent message, nor does it attend to any particular character’s arc. Instead, it positions my wistful, earthly feelings against the show’s expansive backdrop of space. Like Spike, I am guilty of looking within the enormity of the universe, in search of that immense, elusive self which is, at the heart of every living person—of me. Perhaps humanity shares some image, or idea of a journey, which takes us to new horizons in search of what we already possess. Maybe too, wandering gives us the eyes to see things clearly.

Reveries from Orbit

A muddled stain of lights struggles past

nebulous pillars, primordial constants

drifting across a stellar stage—

endlessly expanding.

Far expelled from the hunting grounds of Arcadia,

shamed Callisto rolls through her endless night—

a battered pearl embracing magnetic tempests,

bound to a vicious, lunar circuit.

Cold is the gardener’s land without those tender stars,

beaming flares born in the dust-filled, knotted veils

of Chaos, noble pyres spend to the embers,

furnishing fields and skies with humble glow.

And I, on my cosmic dérive aboard a Catherine wheel,

break from the stellar tides, parsing through wondrous

trails of light and muted fields of slumbering stones,

out into the vast astral scenery, to find myself.

Thanks for reading. I'll be sure to post a full review of Cowboy Bebop when I find the time, and can collect my thoughts in a more coherent fashion.

I definitely enjoyed sharing this with you, and having a more conversational, creative approach to discussing anime. If you'd like to see more hybrid writings/reviews, let me know!