Why Do We Do It?
Why do we answer the chatter in our heads,
why do we soil white paper,
giving birth on a page,
painful labour not helped by Lamaze.
Why do we send our children out to suffer
what we must suffer.
We could be doctors or bankers
or deal with the politics of the world,
or the pure mathematics of the universes.
Sometimes it would be easier to part a sea
than have to bury another child under the epitaph
‘thank you but space is limited.’
Posts
A response to Alec Patric's 'Paper Targets' http://aspatricink.blogspot.com/2009/09/paper-targets_4043.html ,responding to Simonne Michelle-Wells' http://simonnemichelle.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/chapter-one/
ReplyDeleteGreat response, Mark. I would say we do it, (where we is I speaking for our children), because we can be bigger than the space allotted to us.
ReplyDeleteThis is great Mark. And you know what would be fucking cool now? Is if someone wrote a poem or piece responding to your response. Some kind of communal poem/piece would be created. Anyone up for it?
ReplyDeleteThanks Alec, what about Maxine's 'Show Us Where You're Publishing' (http://slamup.blogspot.com/2009/09/show-us-where-youre-publishing.html). I think we're talkin' about a revolution that sounds like a whisper!
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff Mark. But, I think most poets would have a day job. The birth metaphor reminds me a little of Graham Nunn's Brisbane Love Poems 'and still-born poems waiting/at the doorstep wrapped/in filthy newsprint.
ReplyDelete