Life While-You-Wait.
Performance without rehearsal.
Body without alterations.
Head without premeditation.
I know nothing of the role I play.
I only know it's mine. I can't exchange it.
I have to guess on the spot
just what this play's all about.
Ill-prepared for the privilege of living,
I can barely keep up with the pace that the action demands.
I improvise, although I loathe improvisation.
I trip at every step over my own ignorance.
I can't conceal my hayseed manners.
My instincts are for happy histrionics.
Stage fright makes excuses for me, which humiliate me more.
Extenuating circumstances strike me as cruel.
Words and impulses you can't take back,
stars you'll never get counted,
your character like a raincoat you button on the run ?
the pitiful results of all this unexpectedness.
If only I could just rehearse one Wednesday in advance,
or repeat a single Thursday that has passed!
But here comes Friday with a script I haven't seen.
Is it fair, I ask
(my voice a little hoarse,
since I couldn't even clear my throat offstage).
You'd be wrong to think that it's just a slapdash quiz
taken in makeshift accommodations. Oh no.
I'm standing on the set and I see how strong it is.
The props are surprisingly precise.
The machine rotating the stage has been around even longer.
The farthest galaxies have been turned on.
Oh no, there's no question, this must be the premiere.
And whatever I do
will become forever what I've done.
Nobel Prize-winning poet, Wislawa Szymborska.
(21,179)
(21,179)
This is a lovely poem. I especially like "my hayseed manners," and "your character like a raincoat you button on the run." She captures the exhilarating but scary rush of time. The recent tragic events in Connecticut made me think of another of Szymborska's poems, "Could Have," about narrow escapes, how life is both fragile and tenacious.
ReplyDeleteLori Williams
This poem is so powerful and the last line is fabulous. Thanks for sharing. --Marilyn Ryan
ReplyDeleteThis poem strikes so many chords that I think my whole body is ringing! Life is never quite what we think it should/could/would be if only we had "more time", but sometimes it is amazingly more wonderful than we could ever imagine or plan for. The best we can do is walk it out, one day, one minute at a time with our hearts wide open. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteJan Sabey