The Fourth Journal Response!

“Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?"
-Ron Koertge

“Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leave
your house or apartment. Go out into the world.

It's all right to carry a notebook but a cheap
one is best, with pages the color of weak tea
and on the front a kitten or a space ship.

Avoid any enclosed space where more than
three people are wearing turtlenecks. Beware
any snow-covered chalet with deer tracks
across the muffled tennis courts.

Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.
And the perfect place in a library is near an aisle
where a child a year or two old is playing as his
mother browses the ranks of the dead.

Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf.
The title, the author's name, the brooding photo
on the flap mean nothing. Red book on black, gray
book on brown, he builds a tower. And the higher
it gets, the wider he grins.

You who asked for advice, listen: When the tower
falls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybody
in the world frowns and says, "Shhhh."

Then start again.”

Found at : http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/007.html

This poem is a little awkward. It doesn't rhyme, (But I've come to find that a lot of poetry does not possess that quality) but I love the ideas in it! Especially the last stanza, about laughing when our tower falls. It appeals to me. And the part about the notebook-- I don't completely agree that it has to have a kitten or a spaceship on it, but pages the color of weak tea are most certainly the best.

To me, it sounds as if the writer is simply saying, "Love life. Experience it. Be ready to Learn. Don't fear failure. And enjoy the journey to standing back up again."

Which is a pretty great message, if you ask me.