A waste- it’s not a waste.
A year- a year remains;
Hundreds of days, and a day
Is twice as long as any year
I can remember.
Hundreds of days in the year.
It could take weeks
To get through this one,
In this useless angst
Over unfamiliar people,
And worse, familiar people
I don’t know.
They do look beautiful
In the sunshine.
The sun will rise
On all those days.
It always opens
For the stars.
I find more beauty
On the way to the store
Than would most of these folks
In a week of inquiring.
Just now, looking at the sky,
I stumbled over poetry.
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11 Responses to “Want Not What”
I enjoyed this very much - the last six lines are excellent, a great motto to live by in a sense.
I have to agree with CGP-the last six lines are awesome. But the feeling you are having about days seeming longer than years, I don't imagine many people who are non-military have felt that way. Unless... maybe someone in a bad accident that is bedridden for weeks. Those days would be bad. Maybe the waste you speak of is your presence in the military and the year that remains is your time left before you leave or re-enlist. I am not sure, it's all guesswork. There is so much sadness in the beginning and middle. Familiar people that you don't know. That I understand. Everyone seems familiar except a complete stranger, yet I know almost no one. You put so much of yourself into your work. It's so real and so beautiful.
I really like the last two lines - looking at the sky, stumbling over poetry.
"Just now, looking at the sky,
I stumbled over poetry."
I liked these lines amongst others.
"It could take weeks
To get through this one,
In this useless angst
Over unfamiliar people,
And worse, familiar people.."
It does happen this way most of the times...
Yes, I'm in agreement with the other commenters - the last six lines are magic - and particularly the last two. So much is left unsaid, as in life.
I really like this poem, especially as others have pointed, the ending, although all of it is very strong and concise.
I'm back, taking a break for several days and re-reading to see what I think now. I did not look at it as a dialouge between you and yourself earlier. I guess that is how most thoughts are. Now I love the beginning. I'm still stuck on how "a day is twice as long as any year I can remember." Such a powerful thought.
This poem really took me through a progression... and I like that. Not static in any way...
Very poignant as well...
I love the phrase, "I find more beauty on the way to the store/ Than would most of these folks/ In a week of inquiring.
Beautiful.
This turns so smartly on that phrase "I find more beauty . . . " just that simple, unadorned assertion that really good poets make, have made about the ordinary.
Beautiful poem! I loved the last line and the idea of "stumbling onto poetry." It is so true though that beauty can be found in the simplest paths.
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