~Marcus Aurelius
Happy Poetry Friday!
Many Poetry Friday friends pick OLW (One Little Word) as a touchstone or inspiration for their year. I don't usually pick a word (although "flexibility" has picked me a couple of times). This year, though, I picked "generosity." I wanted to learn the hard lessons about generosity. I found it a bit perplexing. The easy stuff is easy, but digging up some generosity in disagreeable situations is indeed hard. Recently, I started thinking about generosity of opinion.
I tend to have a surprising amount of Candor and I have a lot of opinions related to taste (it seems like anyone who has been an editor has to do a lot of choosing according to their tastes.) What I'd really like is to not be generous with sharing my opinion. It feels generous NOT to share it.
I'm talking myself in circles, so here's Andrea Cohen's Gift Economy to get you thinking another way about generosity (and also as a possible mentor poem):
Gift Economy
by Andrea Cohen
I give you a gift card for a store that doesn’t accept gift cards.
The store is in another galaxy.
I give you a paper airplane and a paper ticket for the plane.
I let you fly the plane.
I give you the manifest which says this is a cargo plane filled with horses.
I tell you the horses don’t think of themselves as cargo.
I give you sugar cubes for the horses, and apples.
They’re gifts you can look at in the horses’ mouths.
I give you a flight plan and a lighter with which to ignite it.
You give me the flash fire that begs an encore.
I give you me going up in smoke.
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Reverie has the Poetry Friday round-up today. Thanks, Patricia!
* A special shout-out to Michelle Kogan for her generosity! I didn't participate in the Holiday Poem Swap this year because we had an odd number, but I was the lucky recipient of a wonderful gift from Michelle.
Sometimes the stars just line up right in the galaxy, thanks for the shout-out Tabatha! And as I also have a good amount of candor, I can relate to your pulling back on opinions. Andrea Cohen's poem–would be a good one for discussion–how about that ending line–whoa, it's similar to the ending in her poem "Stationery" "quietly, they erase each other," it's here: http://diodepoetry.com/cohen_andrea/ Thanks, Happy New Year! xox
ReplyDeleteGift Economy feels like an echo to "Under One Small Star" by Wislawa Szymborska - and yes, great mentor poem! I hadn't thought about holding back on candor as a generosity. This may have to be my 2023 intention! Thank you for sharing this, Tabatha. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteYour paragraph around candor and sharing your opinions made me snort, Tabatha! And thank you for the Cohen poem. I'm not quite sure what to make of it, which means I'm hooked enough to want to read it again and try to unwrap its gift a bit more :>) Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteI always love your "taste" in poems; I'm always introduced to something new. I love the idea of one word to kind of nudge you along through a year, and look forward to how generosity serves you... although I'm giggling that you're going to generously keep your opinion closeted. We probably all should do that...
ReplyDeleteKeeping opinions to oneself serves well, especially when sometimes "asked" for an opinion. Imagining what might be expected can be daunting. I love the poem's reference to the "horse's mouth" - clever. Best wishes for a Happy 2023 with 'generosity', Tabatha!
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'll never be wise enough to believe that keeping opinions to ourselves can be a form of generosity--although of course it is, unless the opinions are positively solicited. I come here, Tabatha, to solicit your opinions, because your taste is wild and wide and also demanding and curated--you never give us any shit (pardon me) and you always stretch me. Never stifle your opinions here, please! I let you fly the plane, Tabatha. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Tabatha, for the reminder that holding back our opinions is an act of generosity. It's important to member unless, of course, you remind someone to get the spot on their face looked at and it turns out to be melanoma. But usually our own prized opinions are not life saving and are often annoying. But knowing you, I would probably benefit from your opinions.:)
ReplyDeleteThank you for this perspective on generosity--a good thing to remember when I'm tempted to share my opinions. The One Little Words I've chosen in the past have faded well before the year is out, but today I'm thinking about Intention. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this poem, Tabitha. Very thought provoking!
ReplyDeleteMy goodness, I think of you as a person of great generosity. No wonder you dug in like you have. And, this poem is so wonderfully prickly and shiny in the way it makes me think. I've just started listening to 'Braiding Sweetgrass' and the generosity of the author with her thoughts on what a gift economy is is extraordinary and rich...it links to this post perfectly. Thank you. I am just home from chasing the New Year from London to VA and catching up on posts. Happy New Year, Tabitha. You are a poetry staple for me and I am grateful.
ReplyDeleteWhoa! I love the creative leaps this poem makes -- and the reader is on board for that flight. I think my 2023 word is going to be Innovate.
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