Poem: The Poem Wants a Drink

In the workshop, students analyze
what each poem wants, what each one
strives to be. Well, this poem is
a layabout with limited ambitions. It wants
a drink.

This poem doesn't give a damn
for rhyme or reason. It only sings
off-key. It has no rhythm
in the jukebox of its soul.
It grew up without symbols.
It doesn't know from assonance.
Give it mambo lessons, and it
still won't learn to dance. It has
not one stanza with a lyric pedigree.
It's late, and getting later, and this poem
wants a drink.

Call it gray and tired. Even call it
a cliche. This poem's lived long enough
to know exactly what it means
to say: Don't be stingy
with the whiskey, baby.
.....Yes, the night
has been a cruel one, and this poem
could use a drink. 

             Karen Glenn  

Long life!

I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up,
foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust,
I forgot to ask that they be years of youth.

        Ovid, Metamorphoses 

 

 

 

 

 

Stop interrupting

Never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake.

        Napoleon Bonaparte, The Military Quotation Book

 

 

 

 

Taking our measure

The measure of a country’s greatness
is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis.

        Thurgood Marshall, Furman vs. Georgia ruling 1972

 

 

 

 

Determining reality

The structure of language determines not only thought, but reality itself.

        Ruth Nanda Anshen, Biography of an Idea

 

 

 

 

Rock on

Pop music tells you everything is okay,
while rock music tells you that it’s not okay,
but you can change it.

    Bono, 54th National Prayer Breakfast speech

 

 

 

 

More than the sum of the parts

It is too little to call Man a little world;
except God, man is a diminutive to nothing.
Man consists of more pieces, more parts,
than the world doth, nay, that the world is.

        John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions