Citizen of the Month » Changes

Changes – Poetry Thursday

This week’s theme at Poetry Thursday is ”Changes.”

Changes

I change my life
V E R Y S L O W L Y
like a businessman
stuck in a revolving door
that is so heavy
he grunts and pushes
until his palms are red
and his Wall Street Journal
is on the floor
shredded by the grip
of his shiny black shoe.

I change my life
V E R Y S L O W L Y
like a Wall Street Journal
from years past
tattered by a shoe
still unread.

Tags: changes, Poetry Thursday

40 Comments so far
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The problem with the Wall Street Journal is it doesn’t WANT to change. It would rather move in circles, always staying in the same place.

I can kind of relate. Although, rather than making changes very slowly, I go for long lengths of time without making any changes and then when I finally do (or when they just happen to me) they’re doozies.

I love this poem! A very funny and accurate image and I love the way it moves from businessman to newspaper so seamlessly.

Interesting, especially since of all the major newspapers, WSJ is the most liberal in news coverage (only the op ed is conservative). That might make it resistent to change? The only thing making a revolving door worse is the mechanism that makes you practically trot to get through it without being crushed.

My poem today is about women’s fashion change.

While there is some humor in this piece with its image of a stuck red faced business man, your poem, as a whole, is so much bigger than that. It feels like a lifetime of not humor, but sadness:

Early years spent shoving and huffing to get somewhere. Then the final life change of the last years spent shuffling and halting to stay somewhere.

Don’t worry, I’m not really a poet. I only play one on my blog. I just woke up at four in the morning to make sure the world didn’t blow up because I wrote something different. I really have no idea if it works, and I don’t take these things personally. So feel free to ask me if I was on drugs last night or if it should be The New York Times or Stuff Magazine rather than the Wall Street Journal.

I had a little bit of an epiphany yesterday. I said to myself, I’m not getting paid for this blog. I’m not a mommyblogger and I don’t have any marketable niche. In the scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter whether you have a hundred readers or five readers. You should just write… whatever. I could feel my balls getting bigger, and just writing this made me feel a little horny.

Now, why do I feel the need to even tell you this?

We at The Wall Street Journal work very hard on our august periodical, and we’ll thank you not to besmirch it in your blah blog doggerel. Tattered, indeed!

Love,

That funny comment alone made my day. (and also the use of the word doggerel!)

The New York Times was always known in journalism school as “the gray lady,” but the WSJ is in the same category. The resistance to using color and white space in the design when USA Today changed the look of print journalism forever is what earned the NYT and WSJ their stodgy reputations. I don’t read either–so I can’t comment on how they look now!

A+, Neil. Your use of the revolving door as a metaphor is quite good!

That kind of reminds me of the revolving door scene in The Godfather.

Slow change is respectable my friend.

So, you work in other genres? I like that.

recalling the pile of wall street journals unread in the living room; interesting and thought provoking poem

I like this; it’s different. Love the imagery of the newspaper.

Great imagery! So funny and sad at the same time.

The poem was nice but your epiphany comment was even better. I actually visualized your huevos growing.

We all need to learn to ‘Relax’.

ah, so sweet to see the poet in you…

Tp think I first found you as a poet…and then discovred you were a clever clever man. I like the audible elements of the poem. You are very natural in using all your senses.

And if any bullies pick on you…for your poetry tendencies..don’t worry I got your back..mystery man..hehehe

Okay, I think that my last comment got eaten by the evil comment-eating-blog-gods. Damn.

What I mostly said was that I love this poem. Love it.

Hey babes, as long as you’re changing don’t matter if it’s slow….good luck…although I have to say I love you just the way you are!

What a terrific poem. I love the disclaimer too “I am not a poet, I only play one on TV.” Only a true poet would say something like that. You definitely just earned yourself a spot in my reader.

wait a minute, mommy bloggers get paid for their blogs?
i think you should do what you want with your blog. whatever it takes to bring a smile to your face, not the reader, or readers, it’s all about you.

I really like your buisnessman stuck in a revolving door–nice image for the idea of your whole poem. Good job!

Most excellent!

Wow, Neil, I didn’t deem this erotic poetry, so I’m not sure why writing it got you horny.

But I love the poem, and I like that you stepped out of the box for a moment…and into that revolving door. It’s always cool to see who walks out at the other end.

Very good. WSJ is absolutely the correct publication to use in your context. For a while you’re moving forward, then you seem to be going backwards, then you wind up at the same place you started. We often let WSJ pile up until the weekend because timewise we can’t get to it. (For those of you who haven’t seen it lately, the WSJ has been using color for a long time.) Quite recently its layout completely changed, and the first day I saw that I found it quite shocking. It looks weird. I used to really like the odd-sized Victorian layout. But I am very slow to change, myself; the whole family thinks it’s hilarious that my favorite animal is the tortoise.

Neil, keep you day job, if you have one:)

I think this is the best thing you’ve written in ages.

I just wish you’d sung it…

Oh Wow! Now that I know you were called to write … just write … and it resulted in this very effective poem … and then to learn that one of its effects was you … feeling … your balls … getting bigger …

Oh Wow Wee!! Reading about how writing that made your feel may have just managed to make me feel a just little horny myself.

Damn. Why did I feel the need to tell you that?

There once was a man named Neil
Who had some balls he needed to feel
Along comes a Lady
Who got just as horny
Away in the sunset they steal.

Ok – it was bad but you inspired me!

Two Roads — Even I know that Lady and horny don’t rhyme!

Neil! I am in love with you for sharing this. It’s great. (Tell Sophia she’d better watch out. The ladies love poets. She’d better be ready to keep us away.)

This is such a good poem, it works on so many levels. I hate revolving doors…

That is something I enjoyed immensely. Journeying with WSJ. Ah!

Oh, I thought the words just needed to end with the same letter. Do I get an “E” for effort???

Do those things turn easier going the other way. It’s good one packs a lunch if one’s going thru all that pushing.

Neil,
I’m tagging you with a “Thinking Blogger Award”, which you may have already received, but anyway, just a token of my appreciation.
See info here: http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2007/02/thinking-blogger-awards_11.html

[...] 1) Citizen of the Month, written by Neil Kramer for this great poem. [...]

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Neil Kramer is a writer in Los Angeles (well, New York now). Citizen of the Month is his blog. Make yourself at home.

Email and IM:
neilochka at yahoo dot com

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