So, do you carry any poetry in your wallet?
…Or any important — to you — writing in your pocket or purse (or in your car or on your bike).
I do!
It’s easy. It’s inspirational. You can fold it down to a handy size. In your wallet it wouldn’t be any bigger than a bill. It might be printed out small.
It’s something that you could look at in a free moment or time of need. Like maybe it’s a respite if what’s going on around you is a bit too much (or not enough).
Maybe it’s something you’re working on memorizing.
It could be lyrics of a song, too. (So far for me prose hasn’t entered this picture.)
Obviously, cast-off writing wouldn’t work or anything run of the mill. This would be something that when push comes to shove, you want it on you. Yet it’s not what you’d call a talisman. It’s the *content* that’s there when you need it. The “news that stays new.”
I have a few goodies. I started with snippets from just one writer, then added another and now I’ve gone a bit over the top. I think I have 5 now. I could maybe use a few more. (Just thought of a couple right now.) I wonder if now that I’m getting carried away if I’ll refer to my snippets as much as I used to. It sure would be nice to MEMORIZE THEM ALL. Dang!
Maybe it’s a sign of desperate times. Or ambition?
So, do you do anything like this?
Update 4/13/10: Here’s my stash: 1st item was Shakespeare’s “Let Me Not” and “Share I Compare Thee” sonnets and Hamlet’s soliloquoy. These were for memorizing. I managed it, even. Then I added some Robert Service. And ol’ Ezra’s famous “Hugh” excerpt. Then I got carried away and plugged in Frost’s “Birches” and the first few pages of Whitman’s “Song”. Now I’ve gone beyond the pale and am culling Rumi for a few high-powered goodies. Lastly, my integrative studies author Ron Puhek’s handful of brief poems (google him) — these are for the Maximum Content side of things.
