Ugly Things & Beautiful Things

The importance of balance

I had an ugly thing removed from my leg yesterday and these products are part of my post-surgical care.

The ugly thing is winging its way to a laboratory somewhere for inspection & definition. I’ve always been solidly in the “expect the best” camp so I am expecting it to be benign. I’m putting this out into the universe because….well, I don’t know why except maybe there’s a little tiny smidge of “the worst” hanging around I need to kick out of my head.

Lately, I’ve been reading a poem from 3 books of poetry every morning. (More on that in a later post.) This morning I read the poem “Life on Earth” from the book Life on Earth by the great Dorianne Laux. It begins:

The odds are we should never have been born. Not one of us. Not one in 400 trillion to be exact. Only one among the 250 million released in a flood of semen that glides like a glassine limousine filled with tadpoles of possible people, one of whom may or may not be you…

And it ends:

When you think you might be through with this body and soul, look down at an anthill or up at the stars, remember your gambler chances, the bounty of good luck you were born for.

And I think I was meant to read this poem on this day-after. Doesn’t it put everything in perspective?

Sidebar: It seems like some have lost their perspective lately, screaming and forcing incessant and toxic turmoil. But that’s a different story for another day. (Hands over ears.)

Back in April I took a Zoom workshop with Dorianne Laux, “Finger Exercises for Poets” - probably the best workshop I’ve ever taken. She was natural, engaging, and shared so much wisdom with us. The one best tip she gave us, in my opinion, was on revision to read your poem backward. It should read as well backward as forward. Since, I’ve been reading my work, and the work of other poets, this way and it really is true. (Read the above lines backward and you’ll see!)

Another tip - one I’ve always believed myself, as a reader - is that the last line should elicit a major emotion. An example is “Frying Fish While Drunk” by Lynn Emanuel. This has become a top favorite poem of mine. It’s so skillfully, subtly, and heartbreakingly written.

She is a beautiful, unlucky woman

in love with a man of lechery so solid   

you could build a table on it

and when you did the blues would come to visit. 

If only to write like that! This isn’t actually the last line - you’ll have to click the link to find that out.

These two poems are a study in contrasts. One on the beauty and luck of living this life, the other on the heartbreak and tragedy of living this life. Our challenge is to balance what scares us and what nourishes us. That’s what I’m doing today.