A
secretary at work once stopped me outside my office. “People are worried about
you,” she said
“Me?”
I asked. “Why?”
“You’re
walking the hallways, mumbling to yourself. People are noticing.”
I
stared for a moment, and then I understood.
“I’m
writing a speech,” I said. “It’s a restless activity for me. I have to walk and
mouth the words as I go. I have to hear them. The words have to sound right.”
She
nodded, relieved, if still a little worried.
I
was amused, and then I wondered, do people think I’m weird?
In
a word, yes.
You
can always recognize the poet at work.
Few
of them actually wander the hallways, mumbling to themselves. Poets aren’t
quirte that odd. Usually.
But
you can tell who they are, even if they don’t write or read poetry.
To
continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak
Poetry.
Cartoon by Frits Ahlefeldt via Public
Domain Pictures. Used with permission.
4 comments:
I like the double meaning of "at work".
I thought about that. And I thought about changing it, to make it more specific, and then decided I liked the double meaning.
that's what we do in this corporate communication world -- mumble to ourselves!
A fan here, newly smitten by your books (and hoping you'll write number 3!), and I just wanted to say that I think your posts on poetry have helped nudge me past the once-in-5-years level of my poetizing. I'm bemused to say that I just wrote a poem about soup!
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