Speaking as a foistee and a foister I can fully appreciate the sentiments so well expressed here, Max. Wondered about the necessity for the opening stanza, except if it is intended to reference storage of individual selves or be making some sort of comment on relative intactness which is explored later in the poem.
'paper past' I like particularly.
Bill
> On 26 Mar 2014, at 4:38 pm, Andrew Burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> I hired a skip and dumped one hell of lot when I moved East! But still two
> drawers of an old filing cabinet groan under files marked, Drafts. Big
> plastic store-away baskets on wheels carry lecture notes, tax files, etc.
> Just enough for a small bonfire after the bonfire that takes me finally. I
> should do it now. The paper bonfire, that is. This old body has a few
> kilometres left on the clock.
>
> Good one, Max.
>
>
>
>
>> On 26 March 2014 13:17, Sheila Murphy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> I surely can relate, Max, as the culture has been shifted (yes, done
>> to it, versus any choice, it would seem). Thanks. Sheila
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 7:03 PM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>> Self-Storage
>>>
>>>
>>> For her weekly hour or so
>>> of therapy - digging out
>>> old hurts, seeking strength,
>>> I drop her off in plush Brighton.
>>>
>>> Flat Moorabbin's further on.
>>> I check myself in at spartan
>>> Spot On Storage where we rent
>>> two padlocked cubes, packed deep.
>>>
>>> Here in cardboard cartons
>>> piled high is my paper past,
>>> mostly reading matter, books,
>>> letters, lecture-scripts, notes.
>>>
>>> I have an hour to search,
>>> a lifetime to suss out -
>>> reminders, surprises,
>>> old heartbreak, old losses.
>>>
>>> An hour is not enough -
>>> well, an hour a week so far
>>> has got me past bucketsful
>>> of over-brewed nostalgia
>>>
>>> into projects aborted,
>>> dreams flowered then fouled up,
>>> hopeful relationships faded.
>>> Was nothing completed?
>>>
>>> Had I read all these books,
>>> what a know-all I'd be!
>>> Why keep them still? boxed!
>>> Let them burden whomever
>>>
>>> I can foist them off on.
>>> But these days, book addicts
>>> are few; dealers, libraries - tight.
>>> As for my notebooks, letters,
>>>
>>> burn them? bury them?
>>> all that wishful thinking,
>>> old hurts. No self-therapist,
>>> I padlock my self-storage again.
>
>
>
> --
> Andrew
> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> 'Undercover of Lightness'
> http://walleahpress.com.au/recent-publications.html
> 'Shikibu Shuffle'
> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/new-from-aboveground-press-shikibu.html
>
|