Thursday, July 21, 2005

Comment on a poem

My friend Hillary is a blogger, but not on this site. She uses Xanga, which is all well and good until I want to post a reply to what she wrote, because I have to have an account with Xanga, which I don't. And already having this blog, I don't feel like I need to have another. That being said, I really enjoyed Hill's poem today, and I wanted to pass it on as well as comment on it. I hope she doesn't mind (forgiveness over permission, right?). Not many people read my blog anyway, and a few of them the same people who read her site. If you mind, Hill, just let me know! Here is her beautiful poem:

today I know how neville feels
ensconsed by predetermined boundaries
surrendered to the liquid monotony
powerless to escape
from east to west
or west to east
the scenery never changes
and the destination stationary.

or maybe the illustrative hampster wheeling
in a perpetual vertical race
scrambling and flailing
hoping that the next minute
his efforts eventually might be rewarded
by freedom
or at least a mile that counts for something

and I own a circle too
if only on a different plane
a week that starts and ends
and starts again
with too much of the unchanged
and this glass that detains
just a small guage away from
my audience
in the boundless world beyond.


See? Wasn't that a beautiful poem? What a great description of life! At least life the way it seems now. I guess, then, that that's why the spontaneous moments are so fun. For once we're not on our wheel, but we're running! And going somewhere! Though only for a moment. The freedom that lasts is when we're not bound by the world any longer, but in a new world where we belong. So maybe that's the trick: not spontanaeity (sp?), which only lasts a moment, but working to further the Kingdom, which is outside this world and outside this wheel. Being "Kingdom-minded" is something I forget so often. I worry about the job I still don't have and silly things like money. I get caught up in my own worries that I don't think about others. So thanks for reminding me, Hill. :) I will step off my wheel now and run with purpose.

1 comment:

  1. My favorite poem indicates how limited our vision is by what we see in front of us:

    The tortoise said, " The world is flat; there is no doubt of that."

    Doesn't sound like a poem, but some poet wrote it (I forget who) and it was in the 8th grade anthology I taught in Bridge City. I love the succinct, sure reasoning of the tortoise.... and how wrong he is! Never let your circumstances bind your vision to the here and now; there is more out there.

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