He carried out
his ablutions
with the aplomb
of someone
with more
than one bathroom.
I waited
in the hall,
magazine in hand,
dreams caught
in my hair,
poetry under my fingers,
carefully folded
over to morning.
This little poem is dedicated to my brother-in-law as the clan gathers in a one-bathroom-house, and is somewhat inspired by Dorianne Laux' column, "Poetry: Writing From a Lived Life" in Writer's Digest, February 2009. Laux (it turns out, also at one time from Oregon), wrote about Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems, which he snatched at odd moments by writing every single day. I'm trying to catch up. Three Writer's Digests from the Library here in Philadelphia, and one more I just got from Borders. I make time for writing nearly every morning, novel first and hope for poetry. And then the blogging takes me to unexpected places. Check out the Frank O'Hara poem "Animals", written in 1950. Now, there's a poem.
Realistic, yet humorous beginning caught me off-guard. Quite a way to express frustration. That is not easy to share only 1 lav among a group! I like the lines "dreams caught in my hair"/ "poetry under my fingers"
ReplyDeleteThis one was really amusing, a really good way to express your feelings. I did this once when I was having communicating with a coworker, I poured my feelings into this short, rather mean spirited eight line poem and was then able to deal with him without my emotions getting the better of me after that.
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