Poem spam.

[aquabean]

The Best of It
by Kay Ryan

However carved up
or pared down we get,
we keep on making
the best of it as though
it doesn't matter that
our acre's down to
a square foot. As
though our garden
could be one bean
and we'd rejoice if
it flourishes, as
though one bean
could nourish us.

Comments

[nightengale.livejournal.com]

That is so fucking sad. *huddles* T_T

[runefallstar.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I thought it was kinda hopeful. That whole "never give up" thing you seem so intent on making me cultivate.

[nightengale.livejournal.com]

But the way she puts it - as though the 'never give up' mentality is really sorta silly in the end, when you've only got a square foot left and yet you persist in being willfully blind to the fact that it *is* only a square foot, not an acre, and that yes, that *is* all that "they" have left you with.

I think without the 'as though's, it would be a very hopeful poem.

"Never give up" means that one bean *can* nourish us - not that we're pretending 'as though' it can. *determined nod and hug*

[runefallstar.livejournal.com]

But sometimes sheer willfulness is the only way to survive. I mean, it's all those people who live despite not having food or water, the people who cut off their own arm to save themselves, is sheer will to carry on.

And if you need to make that one bean grow, well, then, at least you're still living and helping something else do the same.