Poetry often enters through the window of irrelevance. - M. C. Richards
Ok, funny story. I was at The Quotations Page looking for a quote to start off my post for the day, and I was having trounle deciding which quote to use. There were several good ones on the page, but after I encountered the Richards quote I knew I had to use it. You see, when I read the quote, I had to sound out the word "irrelevance". When I first glanced at the word I read it as "irreverence", but when I read it again, I knew that wasn't it. So I tried again, but didn't think I recognized the word. I finally resorted to sounding the thing out and realized what a sad little person I am. Alas and alack, my lack of activity due to the summer months has obviously resulted in my losing my ability to read.
Anyway, the reason I was looking for a quote about poetry was because I was remembering when I first named this blog, and I recalled the reason(s) that I named it what I did. As I recall, my inspiration originally came from a poem by Shel Silverstein, the title poem from his book A Light in the Attic. It wasn't really the content of the poem that gave me the idea for the title, but the picture on the cover of the book and the title of the poem. Those things reminded me of the phrase "the lights are on, but nobody's home", and since I'm rather ditzy at times, I decided this was the perfect name for my little blog. You're probably wondering why I bring this up, so I'm going to tell you.
Thinking about Silverstein and his many writings reminded me how much I loved his books when I was little. In particular, I loved the book The Giving Tree. (It's a great book. If you haven't read it, you should.) A touching story about a little boy, his tree, and being willing to give up anything for people you care about. But what I really want to share with you today, is my favorite poem of all time, (Well, that is to say, if you call most of my childhood "all time".) It's not just a cool poem, it's good advice.
Warning*
Inside everybody's nose
There lives a sharp-toothed snail.
So if you stick your finger in,
He may bite off your nail.
Stick it up farther inside,
And he may bite your ring off.
Stick it all the way, and he
May bite the whole darn thing off.
Ok, funny story. I was at The Quotations Page looking for a quote to start off my post for the day, and I was having trounle deciding which quote to use. There were several good ones on the page, but after I encountered the Richards quote I knew I had to use it. You see, when I read the quote, I had to sound out the word "irrelevance". When I first glanced at the word I read it as "irreverence", but when I read it again, I knew that wasn't it. So I tried again, but didn't think I recognized the word. I finally resorted to sounding the thing out and realized what a sad little person I am. Alas and alack, my lack of activity due to the summer months has obviously resulted in my losing my ability to read.
Anyway, the reason I was looking for a quote about poetry was because I was remembering when I first named this blog, and I recalled the reason(s) that I named it what I did. As I recall, my inspiration originally came from a poem by Shel Silverstein, the title poem from his book A Light in the Attic. It wasn't really the content of the poem that gave me the idea for the title, but the picture on the cover of the book and the title of the poem. Those things reminded me of the phrase "the lights are on, but nobody's home", and since I'm rather ditzy at times, I decided this was the perfect name for my little blog. You're probably wondering why I bring this up, so I'm going to tell you.
Thinking about Silverstein and his many writings reminded me how much I loved his books when I was little. In particular, I loved the book The Giving Tree. (It's a great book. If you haven't read it, you should.) A touching story about a little boy, his tree, and being willing to give up anything for people you care about. But what I really want to share with you today, is my favorite poem of all time, (Well, that is to say, if you call most of my childhood "all time".) It's not just a cool poem, it's good advice.
Warning*
Inside everybody's nose
There lives a sharp-toothed snail.
So if you stick your finger in,
He may bite off your nail.
Stick it up farther inside,
And he may bite your ring off.
Stick it all the way, and he
May bite the whole darn thing off.
*Where the Sidewalk Ends, Copyright 1974, Harper and Row Publishing, by Shel Silverstein
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