Thursday, September 2, 2010

Two Poems

In Preparation for Our Landing

Thirty thousand feet above the ground,
he’s reading and munching on peanuts
and Cheetos, thinking about what he
wants to be when he grows up, even
though he knows he’s already grown up,
when he realizes he already is what he
wants to be when he grows up, that it
never has been about yearning and
desire and wanting but being, simply. The
pilot turns on the fasten seatbelt sign.




Skipping Stones

To teach the child, the man
skips a stone across the pond;
the light splashes propel each
flying motion onward, until
without notice or warning or
even a casual glance backward
it sinks.

In perfect imitation, the child
throws another stone,
splashing the noonday sun
reflecting the liquid glass that
the flying stone, in one final
burst of movement, still cannot
shatter.

Photographs: "Blues" and "Rock and Stream" by Nancy Rosback. Used with permission.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Dude. Awesome. :) I hope you appreciate the limited adolescent vocabulary.

Kathleen Overby said...

Wear a helmet with that seat belt. Life gets exciting at this chiastic junction of 'simply being'.

If only men and boys would skip rocks more. Together.

Been missin' you my friend~loved the poetry doodles on this page.

Anonymous said...

i love all of this post.
though, i must say, the first poem speaks volumes to me right now.


(p.s. good one, on using the word cheetos)

Bob Spencer said...

Nice.Love 'em both, but Skipping Stones especially. To describe something as fleeting as a skipping stone, that is a fine thing. Well done.

HisFireFly said...

Great capture of that moment of knowing we already are who we thought we would be and yet still so far...

I continue to be blessed by your words

Duane Scott said...

I love the second poem. So much. :)

Unknown said...

The second poem speaks volumes about parent/child relations.

Love it!

katdish said...

Ah, to figure out that whole "being" thing at a young age!

Loved both of these, Glynn.

Michael said...

The first one actually echo's a conversation my wife and I had the other day. It was a serious conversation about what we wanted to be when we grew up.

L.L. Barkat said...

I like these. I could say more, but want to leave you just with that sense... I like these...

Anonymous said...

This is good stuff Glynn.

Linda said...

I'm going to echo Nancy. The first poem just spoke right to my heart. I love them both, but that's the one!