Friday, October 14, 2011

Poetry Friday: The Quiet World

Last night I talked with my husband who's visiting the grands in Texas. Today is my seven-year-old granddaughter's birthday, and her daddy's. I hung up the phone and the house was so quiet. I went in search of a poem about this silence and found this one. It perfectly captured how I'm feeling.
I hope you enjoy, too.




The Quiet World
BY JEFFREY MCDANIEL

In an effort to get people to look
into each other’s eyes more,
and also to appease the mutes,
the government has decided
to allot each person exactly one hundred  
and sixty-seven words, per day.

When the phone rings, I put it to my ear  
without saying hello. In the restaurant  
I point at chicken noodle soup.
I am adjusting well to the new way.

Late at night, I call my long distance lover,  
proudly say I only used fifty-nine today.  
I saved the rest for you.

When she doesn’t respond,
I know she’s used up all her words,  
so I slowly whisper I love you

Read the rest here.

There's more Poetry Friday at Fomagrams.
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4 comments:

  1. Irene LathamOctober 14, 2011 at 8:41 AM

    Oh Doraine, this one hits me hard! "I saved the rest for you." Lovely lovely! Thanks for sharing. Enjoy the quiet. xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. GatheringBooksOctober 14, 2011 at 11:52 AM

    Yes, like Irene, I was hit hard too by:
    "Late at night, I call my long distance lover,
    proudly say I only used fifty-nine today.
    I saved the rest for you"

    Poetry of silence. Art of quiet. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. TabathaOctober 14, 2011 at 12:28 PM

    One-hundred and sixty seven words is not much, is it? It would be nice to have a "wordometer" for a day, like a pedometer that counted your words, just to see how many we are using. Love the poem, Dori -- thanks for sharing it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. RuthOctober 15, 2011 at 2:42 PM

    I'm so thankful there's no limit on words! Thanks for sharing this!

    ReplyDelete