May 30, 2018

Max’s Musings

By Max Molleston

Lots of would-be readers of poetry, those who don’t trust the poems or the poets, think the poet’s message is too serious to be read with a glass of beer and a sandwich. Short attention spans bother us all, even poems six lines deep, with two stanzas making a statement. What if… a poem is written like lines on a page of a book? An exclusive effort for Mary N. Waters, an Arkansas poet, in her book Into the Universe… Notes from the bumpy road to oneness. My selection is commonplace, more tuned to women doing what they say is a good idea.

The Day I Lost My List

I used to feel the need to make lists regarding a variety of things; Groceries of course, but also whatever needed to be done around the house and yard, gifts to be bought for family and friends, things others told me about such as movies to see, restaurants to try, books to read, etc. One day, except for the groceries, I consolidated all those other items into one list and kept it on the counter in the kitchen where I could see it daily. Except for one morning when it went AWOL, (for Absent With Out Leave, a serious offense in the military). A search which included the trash, ensued. (By the way, I know that many people keep their lists on their phone… I do not.)

Your writer claims the book was printed in 2014 and Water’s language means a smartphone. This Mary N. Waters poem works on to explain her trouble recreating the list. Failure. We close this shortened presentation as Mary writes

…Clear Your Mind. And as for the rest of the list, it is shorter now, based on the trust that if something is truly important, it will come to me, often in a strange and mysterious way.

I call the Waters’ poem real, as some of us have or will experience the loss and the search. This writer also calls it giggly and tongue-in-cheek,

Forgetting and losing seem more common with humans, perhaps of a certain age. Maybe not. Scientific surveys and grandkids point out with no guilt that “gramma forgot her list” or “grandpa forgot his hammer and nails for the doghouse roof.”

All of the Waters poetry in the Into The Universe volume is story form. More poets display lines in this manner. As it appears, all words are placed full lines wide. This style, prose poetry, allows them to stand out but can be a gamble, especially with readers who adhere to forms much more familiar. We have not discussed anything about living our life unless that list you misplaced somewhere rings a bell. We will get on track in July, traveling through another adventure about poets, and their poetry, formed in stanzas, of so many lines. We try to be understood.

Filed Under: Personal Growth

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