The Poetry Playground

Being Boring
“May you live in interesting times.”           – Chinese Curse
If you ask me “What’s new?”, I have nothing to sayExcept that the garden is growing.I had a slight cold but it’s better today.I’m content with the way things are going.Yes, he is the same as he usually is.Still eating and sleeping and snoring.I get on with my work. He gets on with his.I know this is all very boring.
There was drama enough in my turbulent past:Tears and passion — I’ve used up a tankful.No news is good news, and long may it last,If nothing much happens, I’m thankful.A happier cabbage you never did see,My vegetable spirits are soaring.If you’re after excitement, steer well clear of me.I want to go on being boring.
I don’t go to parties. Well, what are they for,If you don’t need to find a new lover?You drink and you listen and drink a bit moreAnd you take the next day to recover.Someone to stay home with was all my desireAnd, now I’ve found a safe mooring,I’ve just one ambition in life: I aspireTo go on and on being boring.
~ Wendy Cope

White Towels

I have been studying the differencebetween solitude and loneliness,telling the story of my lifeto the clean white towels taken warm from the dryier.I carry them through the houseas though they were my childrenasleep in my arms.
~ Richard Jones

Habit

Last night when my work was done,
And my estranged hands
Were becoming mutually interested
In such forgotten things as pulses,
I looked out of a window
Into a glittering night sky.
And instantly
I began to feather-stitch a ring around the moon
~ Hazel Hall

little prayer

let ruin end here

let him find honey
where there was once a slaughter

let him enter the lion’s cage
& find a field of lilacs

let this be the healing
& if not let it be

~Danez Smith

The New Regime

Yes, I agree. We’ll pull ourselves together.
We eat too much. We’re always getting pissed.
It’s not a bad idea to find out whether
We like each other sober. Let’s resist.
I’ve got the Perrier and the carrot-grater,
I’ll look on a Scotch or a pudding as a crime.
We all have to be sensible sooner or later
But don’t let’s be sensible all the time.

No more thinking about a second bottle
And saying ‘What the hell?’ and giving in.
Tomorrow I’ll be jogging at full throttle
To make myself successful, rich and thin.
A healthy life’s a great rejuvenator
But, God, it’s going to be an uphill climb.
We all have to be sensible sooner or later
But don’t let’s be sensible all the time.

The conversation won’t be have as trivial —
You’ll hold forth on the issues of the day —
And, when our evenings aren’t quite so convivial,
You’ll start remembering the things I say.
Oh, see if you can catch the eye of the waiter
And order me a double vodka and lime.
We all have to be sensible sooner or later
But I refuse to be sensible all the time.

~ Wendy Cope