Starting a Poem
Posted: August 27, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Mindfulness, Yoga | Tags: Omaha, Poetry, Prose, Robert Bly, writing 9 Comments…
You’re alone. Then there’s a knock
On the door. It’s a word. You
Bring it in. Things go
OK for a while. But this word
Has relatives. Soon
They turn up. None of them work.
They sleep on the floor, and they steal
Your tennis shoes.
You started it; you weren’t
Content to leave things alone.
Now the den is a mess, and the
Remote is gone.
That’s what being married
Is like! You never receive your
Wife only, but the
Madness of her family.
Now see what’s happened?
Where is your car? You won’t
Be able to find
The keys for a week.
CultFit 
When people are starting to get to know each other as friends or beyond-friends, hobbies/interests/values are shared pretty early. Pet peeves, mysteries, quirks and maybe fears (clowns, kale, high fructose corn syrup, failure) commonly come next. What about anxieties? Eg, “I get panic attacks when I’m in a crowd in a confined space” or “I cannot be in a messy room.”
Things that provoke a distress response by mere sight, smell, or sound are important too. Would the speaker of this poem feel compelled to share proactively his triggers? If so, should Wife feel compelled to proactively FYI her family so that when their extra words, phrases, dangling modifiers come crawling in from the windows, some tense moments can be avoided?
This poem has been stirring in my mind for the past few days and needless to say it raises more questions than it ever will answer. 🙂
nice. where did he publish this?
… Talking into the Ear of a Donkey. 🙂
Mmmmmm….so Robert hasn’t experienced in-laws who add love and support to his life huh?
I’m afraid he has not 😉
Kinda scary now to write a poem…
=)))
No kidding!!!
This is so like ‘spot on’ it was downright scary (cute but still scary). Now it’s to find a way of keeping my words’ relatives at bay (more like locked on the outside) whenever I’m writing. Wish me luck (and thanks for the smile). Wanted to reblog on my blog but didn’t see any ‘reblog’ button so I assume I need to request permission prior to sharing?