Saturday, May 17, 2014

The Poet and the Thief

image by Martin Stranka
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
"The poet and the thief are very distant cousins yet close in one regard
the poet takes from your life his ideas, and the thief just takes your car."
~me
 
 
 
My pockets are full with tokens you have left upon the way
your wishes, your tears, your regrets and all the words you say.
 
Every part of your life that spills out I pick up and then hold tight.
The experiences with each memory are embezzled without a fight.
 
I hoard your actions like antiques that age before my eyes
considering each a luxury to relish as a prize.
 
For I steal your hopes, your sighs, with what you feel and see
I store them in my thoughts waiting for a muse to set them free.
 
 
 
 
 
Over the years I have found that the world around me is a museum, and I a spectator of every artifact.  Every thing that happens and all the people along my path become ideas that form in my mind.  As I take it all in it is almost as if I actually take do take...I take, steal, rob, and hijack everyone and all their situations around me.  I guess people watching is just what writers do.
My favorite place is the mall.
 
What is your favorite place to watch the world?
 
 
 
 
 
 

8 comments:

  1. ha. we are bit of thieves...stealing the moments around us...fodder for our muse...smiles...

    i love people watching.

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  2. The thief just takes your car...giggle...love!

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  3. Aah I love the quote. People watching is my favourite thing to do too. Museums say so much..I love visiting historic places..they give such a haunting feeling at times. Hundreds of lives lived before us.

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  4. This is lovely, and also true....I especially love the last line. Beautiful.

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  5. You've kept the rhyme tight here, and I really like "I hoard your actions like antiques". Also, your postscript at the end was so poetic in its description I thought it was part of the poem until I saw the question - like a free-standing free verse of thought. nice!

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  6. Fantastic closing line on this piece . . . "a muse to set them free". Sigh.

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  7. That is a beautiful poem. I love the way it builds tension with each line - until the release in the very last line when the muse does her work.

    My favorite places to watch people: in church and in the grocery store

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    Replies
    1. I never thought of church, but that is a fascinating and good place for that. Thank you Elise as I have said before, your opinion matters very much to me. :-)

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"Our best thoughts come from others." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson