My Twentieth Year - 20. the matter

What's the matter again? Money can be as shameful as sin.
We dream of being who we're not. And there are those who say if we have no dreams, we die.
If they knew we were daffy... If we were able to smile, despite our unhappiness, they'd know we had courage...
...And so I think I hear the message you were sending me all those years ago. How wonderful these poems you wrote still speak to us all. I particularly felt drawn to No. 42; our dreams - even those of others we adopt - can be sown with hope and grow. No 43 reminds me of a kind of epitaph; this one is fit for an obelisk.\

Many thanks for these.

Each time I read What's the matter?, I'm drawn to the line "or shameful sin."
And each time I read that line, I can't decide if it expresses an alternative to or a definition of Money. It works either way for me.

We dream is an eloquent poem, which expresses an oft overlooked truth. Lovely.

If in days yet to come paints, to me, a definition of humanity in purple colors, not normally used for this purpose. And, I like that. I was almost going to say, "That's SO me!" but I'm not nearly so articulate.

On 06/02/2016 05:49 AM, Parker Owens said:

What's the matter again? Money can be as shameful as sin.

We dream of being who we're not. And there are those who say if we have no dreams, we die.

If they knew we were daffy... If we were able to smile, despite our unhappiness, they'd know we had courage...

...And so I think I hear the message you were sending me all those years ago. How wonderful these poems you wrote still speak to us all. I particularly felt drawn to No. 42; our dreams - even those of others we adopt - can be sown with hope and grow. No 43 reminds me of a kind of epitaph; this one is fit for an obelisk.\

 

Many thanks for these.

Thanks for another wonderful review, Parker. I like and appreciate your take on the two poems, and relish your comment that they speak to you and others. That means a lot to me.

As for No. 43 and being on an obelisk, I bet my words would look lovely in hieroglyphs! I have always loved that form of writing (looking at it, that is), and I know Egyptians believed the form of the words written in that way took on a life of their own; in the physical is the spiritual, and vice versa. Which brings us right back to the form of the obelisk being nothing but a frozen shaft of sunlight.

Thank you again for your support!

On 06/02/2016 11:24 AM, skinnydragon said:

Each time I read What's the matter?, I'm drawn to the line "or shameful sin."

And each time I read that line, I can't decide if it expresses an alternative to or a definition of Money. It works either way for me.

 

We dream is an eloquent poem, which expresses an oft overlooked truth. Lovely.

 

If in days yet to come paints, to me, a definition of humanity in purple colors, not normally used for this purpose. And, I like that. I was almost going to say, "That's SO me!" but I'm not nearly so articulate.

Thank you, skinny D! You make my heart sing by starting with 'Each time,' meaning you feel drawn to read my work more than once. Yahoo!

As for your take on the three poems, I like and appreciate all of them, but I especially like the invocation of purple for the final one. That is a very regal color indeed, and perhaps one fit for (eternity) a very long time

Thanks again!

The first speaks of money and shameful sin, this just yanks me back to my past. To a time when I did nearly anything for a dollar. I didn't think about the shame til later. Even then I didn't care for long.

Dreams, I rarely recall them. But what kind of dreams here? Ones from which you wake screaming, or dreams of who you may yet be, or the path you may one day walk?

The third conjures images of the future and the past. Of people finding our then-old words in the future and though they don't know us, finding that they do.

Sorry I'm so late ... took me a few readings to let myself feel these, the images aren't always places I want to go. They are wonderful AC.

tim

On 06/05/2016 10:15 PM, Mikiesboy said:

The first speaks of money and shameful sin, this just yanks me back to my past. To a time when I did nearly anything for a dollar. I didn't think about the shame til later. Even then I didn't care for long.

 

Dreams, I rarely recall them. But what kind of dreams here? Ones from which you wake screaming, or dreams of who you may yet be, or the path you may one day walk?

 

The third conjures images of the future and the past. Of people finding our then-old words in the future and though they don't know us, finding that they do.

 

Sorry I'm so late ... took me a few readings to let myself feel these, the images aren't always places I want to go. They are wonderful AC.

 

tim

Thanks, Tim. This is a great review, and it touches me. I think you get the 'vibe' I was going for (or going through) when I composed these.

Your comments about people finding our words in the future and 'knowing us' through them touches me (sorry to repeat myself…).

Thank you for this review. I love it.