Preferences, or Out Among The Growing Things

Preferences, or Out Among the Growing Things

They gave me climate control, cool air conditioning,
But I preferred the sultry summer evening
Accepting what the world is giving me
The breathless air confines me less

They gave me a room, a bed to sleep in
But I preferred the firmness of the ground
And stately trees for walls
The vastness of the starry sky
More room for my dreams to play in

They gave me shoes, extra traction grip
But I preferred the feel of grass and mud
And silent gentle steps upon the world
Sharp rocks and stabbing thorns
wound me less than isolation

They gave me cans of bug spray, to put upon my skin
But I preferred mosquito bites
The true give and take of a living world
No poison for them or for me.

Out among the growing things:
Trees and grass and flowers,
Rabbits, deer and squirrels,
Flies and mosquitoes;
This is where I'll walk,
And these will be my company.
It's not for me to shut out the Sun,
Or to hide my nights from the Moon,
It’s not my place to build a wall against the world
Such that my life is but a curse upon the Earth.

 

anyone?

 

could use a teeeeeny bit of editing... but the best you've ever written that I've read.

"no poison for them or for me"

score one for the trippinBTM.

This is where I'll walk,
And these will be my company.
It's not for me to shut out the Sun,
Or to hide my nights from the Moon,
It’s not my place to build a wall against the world
Such that my life is but a curse upon the Earth.


lonely... lack of ego... resignation... this is what I get from this poem that I haven't read in your others. In "Sacred," for instance, you have great, smooth imagery, but not a lot of substance, nor originality. In this poem, the idealism in the first four stanzas is pretty much balanced by the self-awareness in the last. A poem with depth is inherently more successful than a poem that relies on imagry... good show on this one, man.