Wednesday, November 10, 2010

We All Get One

One acre given at birth
One acre for everyone

One acre plants flowers and trees
One acre collects garbage

One acre births art
One acre breeds violence

One acre provides nourishment
One acre poisons the ground

One acre attracts butterflies
One acre draws flies

One acre gives life
One acre aborts thinking

One acre gives succor
One acre pillages

One acre craves more
One acre refuses growth

One acre learns new ways
One acre parrots old news

One acre values wisdom
One acre seeks fame

One acre celebrates freedom
One acre crimps ideas

One acre dreams awake in light
One acre hides in nightmares dark


This is my stab at a catalogue poem. I found it very difficult. LL Barkat offered a Random Acts of Poetry prompt over at High Calling. Check it out. Join in.

The thoughts that created this came from Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird where she talks about all of us receiving the equivalent of an emotional acre when we're born. What do we do with it?

Redemption. The desert may bloom as paradise. Direction may be changed. We may make U-turns, make changes, and start again.  We get to choose how we live on our one emotional acre. Often we are the recipient of someone else's largesse. It makes us want to turn our wasteland into garden.

12 comments:

SimplyDarlene said...

Great words miss Kathleen.

It looks rather like one acre needs some
love from above.

Blessings.

Anonymous said...

pooh bear lives on my acre
he gets a lot of strange visitors

Maureen said...

I'm so pleased you wrote a catalogue poem! I have to admit I did not finish Bird by Bird. Maybe I'll take it up again this winter. I'm glad you found in it inspiration for your poem.

You done good!

Maureen said...

Nancy, Pooh must have crossed the continental shelf or come in by way of Alaska if he's in your neck o' the woods. And when did he switch from honey to wine?

Laura said...

Wonderful! I am so impressed that you did the catalog so masterfully. I read Bird by Bird too long ago to remember that particular source of inspiration, but it sounds very promising. I"m going to have to revisit the book and refresh my memory.

Sending love, Kathleen.

S. Etole said...

I'm enjoying my acre to the fullest ...

Unknown said...

Thanks for stopping by. No, I didn't find catalog too difficult. It turns out that a lot of my poems fit that category. LOL Not all are so obvious, though.

This poem of yours truly does capture many ways to live. Thought-provoking.

Marcus Goodyear said...

This is a good reminder to me. I need to be content with my one acre this morning. What I do with my talent is more important than how many talents I have.

All of the servants were praised the same, no matter how many talents they received and invested (except the fool that buried his talent!)

David Rupert said...

that's a great collection. And a challenge you stepped up to handle well!

My "lot" in life is a tough one, with a few notable anniversaries of sadness coming up.

Your poem helped.

Kathleen Overby said...

You put a different slant on it Marcus. Sorry David for your sadness anniversaries. I like how you exchanged lot for acre. I love paradigm
tweaks and twists. Points of view are interesting.

L.L. Barkat said...

I liked the one acre idea. Here, I live on less than a quarter of an acre. :)

It was hard, wasn't it? I suffered through this exercise myself, while my Eldest found her way in it. Amazing, really, how we all write so differently.

a joyful noise said...

I enjoyed the hop scotch approach to your one acre given to each person. What will you choose to do with yours you ask. Certainly the world would be a better place if we chose to follow God and follow our heart.