The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Sun 8/20/06)

[RetroLounge]

The God Who Loves You

It must be troubling for the god who loves you
To ponder how much happier you’d be today
Had you been able to glimpse your many futures.
It must be painful for him to watch you on Friday evenings
Driving home from the office, content with your week—
Three fine houses sold to deserving families—
Knowing as he does exactly what would have happened
Had you gone to your second choice for college,
Knowing the roommate you’d have been allotted
Whose ardent opinions on painting and music
Would have kindled in you a lifelong passion.
A life thirty points above the life you’re living
On any scale of satisfaction. And every point
A thorn in the side of the god who loves you.
You don’t want that, a large-souled man like you
Who tries to withhold from your wife the day’s disappointments
So she can save her empathy for the children.
And would you want this god to compare your wife
With the woman you were destined to meet on the other campus?
It hurts you to think of him ranking the conversation
You’d have enjoyed over there higher in insight
Than the conversation you’re used to.
And think how this loving god would feel
Knowing that the man next in line for your wife
Would have pleased her more than you ever will
Even on your best days, when you really try.
Can you sleep at night believing a god like that
Is pacing his cloudy bedroom, harassed by alternatives
You’re spared by ignorance? The difference between what is
And what could have been will remain alive for him
Even after you cease existing, after you catch a chill
Running out in the snow for the morning paper,
Losing eleven years that the god who loves you
Will feel compelled to imagine scene by scene
Unless you come to the rescue by imagining him
No wiser than you are, no god at all, only a friend
No closer than the actual friend you made at college,
The one you haven’t written in months. Sit down tonight
And write him about the life you can talk about
With a claim to authority, the life you’ve witnessed,
Which for all you know is the life you’ve chosen.

Carl Dennis

*******************

RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[idgiehkt]

1. well, that was painful.

How do people write about stuff like this...that really hurt me. Can you help me with the last three lines? I get confused in there somewhere, especially the last two. What is your take on it for :"the life you've witnessed, which for all you know is the life you've chosen."? (Pretty please?)

[RetroLounge]

2. I think it's a comment on God's will vs. Free Will

We think we chooe things, but really God makes the alternatives, we choose one of his choices.

maybe...

RL

[idgiehkt]

4. it's a puzzle wrapped in a mystery inside of an enigma

I probably would have gotten it but my train of thought was broken right before I got to those lines and it broke my mental flow. Now I'm just sitting here staring at it and ruminating. The theme of this poem is such a painful thing to contemplate.

Alas for them both, alas for us all
Who vainly the dreams of youth recall
For of all sad words of lips, or pen
The saddest are these–"It might have been."
John Greenleaf Whittier

[wildhorses]

3. choices vs. destiny?

the crossroads of our lives...

what if I had turned left
way back when I took that right?

[RetroLounge]

5. Yeah, I have those thoughts all the time

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

I am at that crossroads now, and am paralyzed at the prospect of making the "wrong" decision...

RL

[wildhorses]

6. .......

:hug:

[Callalily]

7. I agree with above that this

is a very painful poem, but I suspect it was meant to be, to spark opinions, to generate controversy. I never question the choices I made in the past. I may not make the same choices now, but I made then then, based on who I was then. And these choices made me who I am today, and trying to be humble here, I truly like who I am. I've accomplished a lot considering all the roadblocks that have been in my path. And future choices, I'm sure will change me more, and I embrace that, embrace change.

RL, good choice in poems, because it certainly sparked something in each and every one of us who responded, and most likely, those that read it and did not reply.

:hi: :pals:

[tinfoil tiaras]

8. Very interesting

Touches on a subject that really interests me. I always want to have a glimpse into the future, to see what college I end up going to, what guy I end up marrying, etc.

This is really interesting...and good! :D

[miss_american_pie]

9. ...

Unless you come to the rescue by imagining him
No wiser than you are, no god at all, only a friend

[RetroLounge]

10. ...

And would you want this god to compare your wife
With the woman you were destined to meet

RL

[A-Schwarzenegger]

11. RL, do you know William Stafford's poetry?