If I wrote poetry I’d tell you
About the satellite dishes on the side of the grimy flats
Like mushrooms on a log, pointing at the sky
In neat formation, flowers desperate for the sun.
I would find a brilliant way of describing
How the smeariness of the bus windows,
A filter dropped in front of the lens,
Transforms the Victorian school into an Instagram.
I would point out, ever so nicely,
That neither the convenience stores on the colonnade
Nor all the convenience stores on all the colonnades
Can make up for the inconvenience of not being in bed.
Because I don’t write poetry, I imagine you instead
In a different vehicle, at a different time,
Going down this same stretch of road,
Not noticing any of those things, not thinking of me.
Proximity, and Revelation.
-
Usually, things are just the distance away that they seem to be. Neither
closer, nor further away, just where they should be. Our eyes find them
and,...
4 days ago
Posts
13 comments:
Well, if you did write poetry, I imagine it would be just as excellent as this.
Great poem!
I think the relationship between good jiving prose and poetry is thinner than most think. Just take out the line breaks, make this piece one paragraph, ta-da! prose, put them back in and there's a poem staring at you.
Not bad for non-poetry. :-) The bus window bit was the part I liked best.
ah, my talented MLS, but i think you do write poetry. i imagine you do it rather well.
I'm with "m"and "sydneylk"......all of your writing is poetry of a kind.
This one is just splendid.
Like it!
I liked the bus window very much
So beautiful,your April posts are making missing you in Twitter worthwile
Yes, I thought the bus window was great too. Marvellous non-poetry.
Hey - I LOVE this.
Thanks everyone who commented on this – I’d be lying if I pretended I had put this up without any trepidation, so it helps that people were kind as it’s a bit of a departure.
Sydneylk – I’m afraid I profoundly disagree with this. I think poetry and prose read completely differently. I read a lot of terrible literary magazines that think that prose, just because it happens to be nebulous or impressionistic or “poetic” can be described as poetry. I don’t agree. As a writer if I’d wanted to express the sentiments in this piece in prose I would have written a completely different piece.
m – Thank you! This is the only evidence one way or the other. I’m not sure what it proves.
Lore – I’m not missing Twitter much. I wonder how much it is missing me.
MLS, I imagine you could write poetry and write it well. If you spent time and had your heart in it :-).
But if you don't, its not a loss. For your prose more than makes up for it.
I always loved your metaphors and this piece is no different.
This is quite excellent...I am glad you did write poetry!
Post a Comment