It is wearying work—
picking up the loose tools
and scraps and stray parts
that clutter the shop.
I don’t do it often enough
and it shows. The tools
all have a place, if
something else hasn’t been hung there.
Tempered steel memories of
life’s changes and chances…
most of the cheapers have been dumped
but there are some expensive dead-ends
tools bought for experiments
that were tried and abandoned
The scraps are a problem, or,
rather, they pose one:
What is a scrap? What is an off-cut?
Metaphysics in the wood shop.
The odd parts are the worst:
projects started and never finished
time, material, effort wasted.
The whole process gives me
too much time to think---
to compare my cluttered mind
to my cluttered shop.
What is an off-cut, and
what, among
these memories can be,
should be discarded?
And these bits of unfinished business
schemes and dreams and relationships
that died aborning, or from
my neglect, what of them?
I pick up another arm load
and begin to sort
through the clutter
of my life:
It really is wearying work.
Wow, John, have been sorting through my cluttered rooms also. Something occurred to me upon reading your line, "It really is wearying work." --and that is, maybe we must first BEGIN our clutter-cleaning (garage or life) by exchanging the word/concept 'wearying' with 'joyful'...
Excellent thinking processes through this poem; it began with your writing, and is continuing through us, your readers. Thank you for this gift.
TRUE STORY. Bella survived an abusive powerbroker father with organized crime ties, a drug-addicted mother and a physically/sexually abusive brother. Shocking & inspirational. When she couldn't cry, she tattooed a crying angel to cry for her.
On February 20, 2003, pyrotechnics at a rock club in West Warwick, RI set off a devastating fire that roared through the crowded club, killing 100 people and injuring hundreds more. Gina Russo was one of the survivors, and she retells her harrowing e
Share
Print
Save
Follow
Peace.
Those that stay are good for future inspires...Ed
Nice meander with you through your tool shed and mind. Interesting mix of metaphors. Ditto - Well done!
LL*
(((HUGS))) and love, Karla.
Love tinka
Excellent thinking processes through this poem; it began with your writing, and is continuing through us, your readers. Thank you for this gift.