“Life is short, though I keep this from my children.[1]The 2016 poem “Good Bones” by Maggie Smith was the ultra-rare poem to go viral–and that organically, sans algorithm, “without compulsory means”–in the social media … Continue reading
Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine
in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,
a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways[2]There have been some scattered critics who have accused Maggie Smith of being a rather pedestrian, obvious poet after all, with no real hidden depths–that there’s a reason this poem, of … Continue reading
I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least
fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative
estimate, though I keep this from my children.
For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.[3]A clever combination of both Matthew 7:9, “what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?” along with Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air, … Continue reading
For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,
sunk in a lake.[4]An important reminder that some parents really do give their children a stone for bread, and a serpent for a fish in the lake. Life is short and the world
is at least half terrible, and for every kind
stranger, there is one who would break you,[5]Another important reminder that the Good Samaritan was a stranger who helped the man left half-dead on the side of the road precisely because he had been beaten by other strangers before him.
though I keep this from my children. I am trying
to sell them the world.[6]“God so loved the world….” after all, though boy have we not shown it the same love. Any decent realtor,
walking you through a real shithole, chirps on
about good bones: This place could be beautiful,
right? You could make this place beautiful.”[7]As Jane Bennett (whom we have quoted before) once wrote in The Enchantment of Modern Life: “One must be enamored with existence to be capable of donating some of one’s scarce mortal resources … Continue reading
References
| ↑1 | The 2016 poem “Good Bones” by Maggie Smith was the ultra-rare poem to go viral–and that organically, sans algorithm, “without compulsory means”–in the social media era, when supposedly poetry as a popular art-form was long dead. And it’s not hard to see why: not just this poem, but the entire 2017 poetry-collection of the same name, is custom-designed to resonate with young parents who want so desperately for their children to fall in love with the world, while remaining keenly and tragically aware of just how awful this world can be to begin with. |
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| ↑2 | There have been some scattered critics who have accused Maggie Smith of being a rather pedestrian, obvious poet after all, with no real hidden depths–that there’s a reason this poem, of all things, went viral in the social media age. In response to that, I will only note that the repetition of “a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways” is a direct echo of T.S. Eliot’s “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” wherein he writes, “And time yet for a hundred indecisions/And for a hundred visions and revisions/Before the taking of a toast and tea.” Given how Eliot, too, was attempting to recover his own sense of enchantment as well, Maggie Smith appears to be working in a similar register. |
| ↑3 | A clever combination of both Matthew 7:9, “what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?” along with Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” |
| ↑4 | An important reminder that some parents really do give their children a stone for bread, and a serpent for a fish in the lake. |
| ↑5 | Another important reminder that the Good Samaritan was a stranger who helped the man left half-dead on the side of the road precisely because he had been beaten by other strangers before him. |
| ↑6 | “God so loved the world….” after all, though boy have we not shown it the same love. |
| ↑7 | As Jane Bennett (whom we have quoted before) once wrote in The Enchantment of Modern Life: “One must be enamored with existence to be capable of donating some of one’s scarce mortal resources to the service of others. […] You have to love life before you can care about anything.” |