And, after all, isn't one of the points of keeping a commonplace book/blog using it to help one notice the ordinary? Certainly that is a way that the books can be used. So, here is a poem by a poet who often draws readers attention to what is with appreciation. I am grateful for this from Carl Dennis whose sensibility seems computable with a vocational outlook that urges us to respond to these people who are in this plaee today rather than being preoccupied with finding a perfect job somewhere else for later.
Drugstore
Didn't happen to meet at an art exhibit
Or at a protest against a foreign policy
Based on fear of negotiation,
But in an aisle of a discount drugstore,
Near the antihistamine section,
Seeking relief from the common cold.
You ought to be proud that even there,
Amid coughs and sneezes,
They were able to peer beneath
The veil of pointless happenstance.
Here is someone, each thought,
Able to laugh at the indignities
That flesh is heir to. Here
Is a person one might care about.
Not love at first sight, but the will
To be ready to endorse the feeling
Should it arise. Had they waited
For settings more promising,
You wouldn't be here,
Wishing things were different.
Why not delight at how young they were
When they made the most of their chances,
How young still, a little later,
When they bought a double plot
At the cemetery. Look at you,
Twice as old now as they were
When they made arrangements,
And still you're thinking of moving on,
Of finding a town with a climate
Friendlier to your many talents.
Don't be ashamed of the homely thought
That whatever you might do elsewhere,
In the time remaining, you might do here
If you can resolve, at last, to pay attention.
"Drugstore" by Carl Dennis, from Callings. © Penguin Poets, 2010.
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