How It Adds Up by Tony Hoagland

I planted, grew, &  photographed this long stem red Rose.

I planted, nurtured, photographed this fragrant red Rose.

I planted the seed, watered & fertilized it, then photographed this magnificent red Dinner Plate Hibiscus.

~×~×~×~×~

How It Adds Up

BY TONY HOAGLAND

There was the day we swam in a river, a lake, and an ocean.   

And the day I quit the job my father got me.   

And the day I stood outside a door,   

and listened to my girlfriend making love   

to someone obviously not me, inside,   

and I felt strange because I didn’t care.   

There was the morning I was born,   

and the year I was a loser,   

and the night I was the winner of the prize   

for which the audience applauded.   

Then there was someone else I met,   

whose face and voice I can’t forget,   

and the memory of her   

is like a jail I’m trapped inside,   

or maybe she is something I just use   

                                       to hold my real life at a distance.

Happiness, Joe says, is a wild red flower   

                      plucked from a river of lava   

and held aloft on a tightrope   

                      strung between two scrawny trees   

above a canyon   

                      in a manic-depressive windstorm.

Don’t drop it, Don’t drop it, Don’t drop it—,   

And when you do, you will keep looking for it   

everywhere, for years,   

while right behind you,   

the footprints you are leaving   

will look like notes   

                                          of a crazy song.

“How It Adds Up” copyright © 2003 by Tony Hoagland. Reprinted from What Narcissism Means to Me.

~~~~~~~~~

Y'all, It is steaming HOT here in the Louisiana swamps!  It has been over 100 degrees for a week.  I'm used to it, but it's like childbirth:  you forget the pain until the next labor comes along.  Stay cool and read lots of poetry!  Thanks for stopping by.  I appreciate you all.

xo,
Marion

~×~×~×~×~

"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life." ~ Albert Camus

~×~×~×~x

"Being that rare sort of old girl that she receives Good to her arms without a hint that it might be Better and catches light from any little spot of darkness near her." ~Charles Dickens, "Bleak House"





 ~×~×~×~x

"I think you are wrong to want a heart. It makes most people unhappy. If you only knew it, you are in luck not to have a heart." ~L. Frank Baum, "The Wizard of Oz"

"I shall take the heart," returned the Tin Woodman; "for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world." ~L. Frank Baum, "The Wizard of Oz"

~×~×~×~×~

"Whatever you are physically...male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy--all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside.

Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, #1)