A Man in a Room, and other poems - 6. anniversary & to tie a shoe

Both are good, AC!

No. 11
It’s an odd topic to write a poem about but I can understand why you chose it. Tying shoes really isn’t an easy task. We think it’s simple yet it is, as you have written, a choreographed set of movements. So, this poem is an exercise in explaining the job and the poetry contained within. I like it!

No. 12

There is doubt and fear, yet you seem to hope that change is coming. The smile, is like reaching out your hand, hoping for more. Yet friendship for now, is enough.

Great AC, but I agree with tim. Tying shoes is a random subject.. It works though in my head like a metaphor for a mating dance of sorts. Then the two shall be one.. Pay no attention to me..

To tie a shoe made me think of the very first assignment we got as law students: describe how to knot your necktie.
The object of the assignment was of course to make us aware of the difficulty of catching in words a very basic action and in doing so demonstrating the difficulty of proper formulation.

Where the comparison fails is the thought of the shoestrings coming together and thus being united.
When I tied my shoes this morning, for the first time I was aware of this.
How can I ever tie my shoes again without thinking of you, AC?

On 01/02/2017 04:04 AM, Mikiesboy said:

Both are good, AC!

 

No. 11

It’s an odd topic to write a poem about but I can understand why you chose it. Tying shoes really isn’t an easy task. We think it’s simple yet it is, as you have written, a choreographed set of movements. So, this poem is an exercise in explaining the job and the poetry contained within. I like it!

 

No. 12

 

There is doubt and fear, yet you seem to hope that change is coming. The smile, is like reaching out your hand, hoping for more. Yet friendship for now, is enough.

Thanks, Tim. In regards to tying a shoe, I agree with you that it's an odd topic to write a poem about. Your reaction – and the reaction of the other reviewers as well – is the one I felt when I discovered this and typed it up.

The key seems to be in the weird line about tying laces being 'legal and beautiful.'

For No. 12, I like you assessment. If indeed this is another Ross poem, then the friendship you mention was the best I could hope for, or so I thought at the time.

Thank you for a great review, and all your support. Hugz

On 01/02/2017 02:07 PM, Defiance19 said:

Great AC, but I agree with tim. Tying shoes is a random subject.. It works though in my head like a metaphor for a mating dance of sorts. Then the two shall be one.. Pay no attention to me..

Thanks, Def! I will pay a lot of attention to you, as you got what I think I intended to say in the shoe-tying poem. It's not one I remember writing, so it puzzled me when I typed it up recently, but the message about coming together in unity, coupled with the idea that it's allowed, makes me think this is another poem about me being afraid to come out.

Thanks again for the great review. I appreciate it.

On 01/02/2017 09:50 PM, J.HunterDunn said:

To tie a shoe made me think of the very first assignment we got as law students: describe how to knot your necktie.

The object of the assignment was of course to make us aware of the difficulty of catching in words a very basic action and in doing so demonstrating the difficulty of proper formulation.

 

Where the comparison fails is the thought of the shoestrings coming together and thus being united.

When I tied my shoes this morning, for the first time I was aware of this.

How can I ever tie my shoes again without thinking of you, AC?

Thanks, Peter. Not to get morose at this point in time, but as I've been leading up to in my replies, I can tell you being Gay was illegal when this poem was penned. It was in Missouri at least. Psychologically speaking, the late '80s in the U.S. seemed to exist to terrorize young Gay men – there was no action by the Government to fund HIV research; Ronald Reagan never uttered the words 'Gay people' while in office; Nancy Reagan crumpled up a phone message from her "good friend" Rock Hudson begging for her to get Ron to help him with treatment in France; and worse of all – the Supreme Court said no Gay American had any constitutional protections in the Bowers v. Hardwick ruling (1986).

A stupid little insignificant poem about tying shoe laces…but what a heavy background in which it was created.

Thanks for your support, dear friend, and for another great review.

I love the way you so deftly connect the tying of shoes to tying other sorts of knots (now legal, thankfully). Just that one little word shifts the whole universe of this poem, and our own sight. As for the next,
A dream alive, in a person alive,
a smile friendly given

A friend for the times,
whatever the times may be

I can only think of the times I dreamed of a friend for that time, and for all times. You express my yearning so well, so easily.

On 01/03/2017 06:01 AM, Parker Owens said:

I love the way you so deftly connect the tying of shoes to tying other sorts of knots (now legal, thankfully). Just that one little word shifts the whole universe of this poem, and our own sight. As for the next,

A dream alive, in a person alive,

a smile friendly given

 

A friend for the times,

whatever the times may be

 

I can only think of the times I dreamed of a friend for that time, and for all times. You express my yearning so well, so easily.

Thanks for a great review. I must have missed it until right now.

Yes, tying the knot – that's the perfect dreamscape metaphor. You know, the kind of symbol we might dream of, but one taking a very literal form of an otherwise rhetorical idiom. Thanks for that; you've opened my eyes

As for the other poem, you always have such a connected response to the Ross material, it touches me.

Cheers, my friend.