Friday’s Poetry
Who Needs A Story?
Translated from the Tigrinya
by Charles Cantalupo and Ghirmai Negash
I needed a story
And asked myself all day –
What can I write?
It kept me awake all night –
What do I have to say?
I emptied so many words
And ideas out of my brain
It would have floated away
If not tied to my heart.
Now I needed art.
Paper and pen in hand,
Tomorrow I would start . . .
But wait.
What is this all about?
Do I really need a story?
All this time and hard work –
For what?
I hate myself for thinking this.
I already have a story
That nobody knows and it’s great –
I am the story.
From the book Side by Side: New Poems Inspired by Art from Around the World, edited by Jan Greenberg. A different photo accompanied the original poem, of course, but I thought this one made a similar statement.
Ah-poetry…a style after my own heart…and that picture just tugs at my heart strings. Claire is an AMAZING story indeed…
Yes, Claire is such a lovely story. And I love this big picture format you’ve got going here. It’s all kinds of pleasant.
Love this. We all need stories – but we are the story, too. Great poem – and photo.
GREAT picture. Yes, I’m shouting.
Claire was a great model for this set of pics. You’ll really like the one I have of her flashing her gang sign! (I’m saving it for the perfect moment.) I love the big picture format, too. It spices things up a little. And there are so many stories in this picture: Claire, her hat, that old chair, the old quilt in the old chair, . . . so many stories!
Beautiful…
What a sweet picture of a miraculous story! I loved this post Felicity! It touched my heart!! Great job!