Poetry, like a song, can stay in the mind. A tune that won't leave the mind is sometimes called an "earworm" but a written or spoken phrase can do much the same thing. One of the blogs I follow is Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac and he has a poem on that site each day. A week or so ago, I was intrigued by Jennifer Maier's poem about a rummage sale. The poet apologized to various people in her life who had treasured things or given her gifts that she now decided to put on sale.
I liked the poem and looked Maier up in the Kindle Store. Downloaded "Dark Alphabet" and read there some phrases that gripped me. One was "chronic sanity", something the poet feels some people are burdened with. Faced with too much sanity, someone might come to feel that they simply must take off on a flight of fancy, something to stir the emotions and show the neighbors what's what. I feel that I appreciate sanity, common sense and the rhythms of a pedestrian life but I do sympathize with those, often young people, who fear they are missing or have already missed something great. They may be candidates for bungee jumping or heavy drinking.
Another wordworm phrase was "a life so complicated that even the person living it has given up on trying to follow the plot." Sure, lives don't really have plots. There isn't really a story line usually. If I dedicate my life to a cause, there might be. If someone recounts my life "story", there is something like a plot. I was born, I lived and then I departed. But young people can certainly wonder what their lives will look like when they are near its end. Old people can certainly be surprised at the twists and turns and locales and events that affected their lives.
I don't spend much of my time reading poetry but it can be so good when I do, that I wonder why I don't. Ogden Nash, Billy Collins, George Bilgere and Jennifer Maier can put a shine on life.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
