Friday, February 6, 2009

Poetry Friday


It's weird and affirming all at once when experiences or habits you thought were unique to you and somehow not to be disclosed are described by others. No experience is replicated in total, of course, but this poem by Phillip Booth is strangely familiar. Here are excerpts:

Adding it Up
by Philip Booth

My mind’s eye opens before
the light gets up.
...

I give some
passing thought to the point
that if I hadn’t turned poet
I might well be some other
sort of accountant.
...

I seesaw on the old cliff, trying
to balance things out: job,
wife, children, myself.
...

My mind’s eye opens before
my body is ready for its
first duty

The rest of the poem is here.

Wild Rose Reader is hosting Poetry Friday Roundup this week.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Yat-Yee, thanks for sharing this. There is something affirming about knowing you're not the only one!

Christina said...

Love this--

"I seesaw on the old cliff, trying
to balance things out"

So familiar. When one of my children was tiny, I believe I described to a friend how I felt as "balancing over a pit of vipers and trying desperately not to fall in." A little drama-queen, I admit, but it was how life felt to me at the time!

Yat-Yee said...

Hi Martha and Fiddler:
pit of vipers. eek.

But I know what you mean.

susan said...

Thanks for coming by and commenting. And thanks for the selection. I enjoyed this.

Douglas Florian said...

I like the reference to accountants, who also balance books, Saul Steiberg, a visual punster, and turning poet.

Mary Lee said...

Yes, I agree. How fun that a poet is "another sort of accountant." If I had to pick, I would pick YOUR kind!

Yat-Yee said...

Who would've consider poets and accountants to be similar?