a poetic #EPIC answer to “how are you?”
“How are you?” seems such a simple question. We hear it, or variations of it, over and over again, and we answer without much thought. “Fine thanks,” or something like it, we say.
But the “how are you?” in a recent email caused me to stop, think and feel. Not sure why it did, but it did. Within an hour, words started to flow. My own quirky rhyming-style poetry, which, once it starts, is hard to stop. And it can’t be shelved. I have to sit down and write until the words stop coming. I finished the core of the #EPIC answer below in short order.
In the process, several other poems emerged. They had to be excised from #EPIC, and they took on lives of their own. Then completely unrelated pieces started to float to the surface. Uh oh. When that happens, it’s hard to know which of the flowers in the field to pick. I try to gather as many as I can, because if I don’t, they will wither and die as all living things do.
I write in a frenzy, everywhere and anywhere: on scraps of paper, in notes on my iPhone when out on a walk after having torn myself away from my keyboard to get some exercise because exercise is important for good health you know. So is being more than just fine.
more than just fine
Listen here (and/or read below):
more than just fine
© 2017 punkie
“how are you?” you ask,
in the usual way,
but how to respond?
what should i say?
my heart pumps my blood
without skipping a beat
i breathe in and out,
i wake, eat and sleep
birds flit at the feeder
the grass seems more green
it’s cloudy, it’s sunny,
it rains in between
the past is in pictures
that sit on my desk
or run like a deer
through a field in my head
answers are found
in the life that i live
how much have i taken?
how much more can i give?
in summer i golf
in winter i curl
i didn’t do either,
when i was a girl
in autumn i feast
on orange and red,
in spring, watch things rise
as if from the dead
i light fires in places
all the year-round,
sometimes feel lost
then suddenly found
drink wine in the evenings
eat chocolate for fun
dance under the stars
shade my eyes from the sun
play cribbage on friday
pop corn in a pot
pick flowers growing wild
in a back forty lot
wear pink in the morning
prefer purple at night
have colourful specs
to help with my sight
count blessings and curses
don’t dwell on the pain
look fate in the eye
watch the moon as it wanes
dreams form, and then fade
in the clouds up above
crave sweet solitude
know the solace of love
my body is aging
it’s stiffer, it aches
i try to ignore
the sounds that it makes
my bladder is weaker
tends to leak when I sneeze,
my cat’s getting older,
she has kidney disease
at once I am hopeful,
delighted, then sad,
despairing and joyful,
mad at stuff that is bad
plugged into the planet
with connections worldwide
bold strangers and friends
stand strong by my side
others enter my orbit
not too close, or too long
the illusion of freedom
is the truth of my song
i do what i like
whenever i want
pick fights with the devil,
go out for a jaunt
changing the world
consumes a lot of my time
as does righting with rhythm
while trying to rhyme
words tumble and stumble
while I bumble along,
searching and blogging,
to write what is wrong
i have all i need
i’ve never been poor
earn more than enough
to keep wolves from the door
grief travels with me
like the ghost it can be
holds softly my hand
lest I quick try to flee
gifts beyond measure
i get every day
sniff, taste and see,
hear and feel my own way
when things go south,
as sometimes they do,
i hide under the covers,
pretend it’s the flu
faint in the kitchen
crawl to the bed
“you’ll live ’til you die”
the doctor she said
some god wrote a plan
i have few complaints
after hell and high water
i’ll march with the saints
that’s it in a nutshell
the short and discreet
too brief for a novel
too long for a tweet
“it’s all good,” so they say
once upon a last time
and happily, ever after,
i am more than just fine
More here:
© 2017 Susan Macaulay . I invite you to share my poetry and posts widely, but please do not reprint, reblog or copy and paste them in their entirety without my permission. Thank you.
