http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
The original version of today’s
poem was written in 1976 and has appeared in several poetry magazines and
anthologies. I have since made some revisions, but retained lower case throughout. Why? Because I still feel it makes the point that conversations are like jigsaws; as we try to piece it all together, we may well find ourselves making poor (not necessarily bad) guesses, as if our bigger picture in our mind's eye doesn't quite correspond to that on the box cover.
Now, this may not be one of my best
poems, but it remains a firm favourite of mine, not least because it turns on a theme
to which I will return time and again in my later poems; a breakdown of communication between two people on a meaningful, personal level in modern society, not least for each of them looking at the same picture in the same conversation's frame, but from different perspectives. The result can be thoughts and conversations left hanging, not unlike gaps in a jigsaw looking to be filled. In terms of conversation, this can only be resolved once those concerned accept the need to keep the same picture in view while allowing for its being approached from different angles.
Here we are in an
age of increasingly sophisticated technology, yet fewer and fewer people ever
sit down and talk to each other, and
I don’t mean making small talk or talking at people (because we so love the sound of our own voices?) or
IM'ing on social networks, Internet chat rooms and mobile phones.... I mean face to face sitting
down and talking things through, and listening
to each other.
Oh, but I have met so many people - members of my own
family included - who will only talk about something if they know they are gong
to like what they hear; so much as any hint of opposition to their point of
view, and they don’t want to know. As for confronting home truths, that is rarely if ever on the agenda;
nor can they be persuaded by any suggestion of a mutual exchange.
So is it any wonder that so many relationships
fall apart, family members become estranged, best friends become sworn enemies
and work colleagues cannot stand to be in the same room as each other....?
It takes two to talk and two to
listen or the chances are there will be more
wrong assumptions, misunderstandings, misinterpreted actions or words distorting our personal space than man-made waste polluting the
atmosphere.
When did YOU last have a
worthwhile two-way conversation or frank
exchange of views with someone close rather than let them eat away at your patience
till it snaps...or worse? A jigsaw requires patience to piece together the picture on its box. While some of us may well feel we live in boxes, those cover pictures may well be very similar, but rarely the same unless we happen to be on much the same wavelength. Could that be why the Spirit of Love excels at human jigsaws...?
CONVERSATION PIECE(S)
not a bad day,
so I’ve heard say
over the jam
could have been worse;
by the way, I saw a hearse this morning
outside number five
good to be alive,
even in a cactus twilight creeping
under the skin
there’s a scratching
at the door, better let the cat in I suppose,
but before I do...
tell me, who else
knows about us or even suspects
anything...?
here we sit, you and I,
like figures at that hearse, scratching away
with each eye...
for something to say
after clocking up much the usual
hours apart...
what’s that?
okay, I’ll go let in
the cat
Copyright R. N. Taber 1976; 2012
[Note: An earlier version of this
poem has appeared on the blog under the title Conversation Piece, also in Love and Human Remains by R. N. Taber, Assembly
Books, 2000] RNT
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