(Poem) Number Me
- Dale
- The Landlord
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(Poem) Number Me
Number me
Number me among the breathing
And among those who, by virtue of number,
Receive deep discounts at the pharmacy.
Number me for the sake of order
And so that my name is not an impediment
To the even enforcement of policy.
Number me among those who go to Heaven
And not among those who go to Hell
Or those required to go to preschool dance recitals.
Number me among those who know whether
Attendance of preschool dance recitals
Is an aspect of Heaven or of Hell.
Number me among those at the emergency room,
By crisis of head or of bowel or of heart,
So that my I may fathom the nature of my emergency.
Number me among those who wait in digital queue,
For the agents of customer support,
Because my call is very important to them.
Number me among those who wait patiently
For said agents of support, especially technical,
Only to finally speak to a courteous man in India.
Number me for the purpose of Social Security,
Let that number be three and two and four
So that as I approach death I will be secure. And social.
Number me among the nourished
And not among those who are ranked
By the rule of first-come-first-serve.
Number me, otherwise, among those who stand in line
And not those who see no line
And who do not stand.
Number me among the ungrateful.
Dale Wisely
Number me among the breathing
And among those who, by virtue of number,
Receive deep discounts at the pharmacy.
Number me for the sake of order
And so that my name is not an impediment
To the even enforcement of policy.
Number me among those who go to Heaven
And not among those who go to Hell
Or those required to go to preschool dance recitals.
Number me among those who know whether
Attendance of preschool dance recitals
Is an aspect of Heaven or of Hell.
Number me among those at the emergency room,
By crisis of head or of bowel or of heart,
So that my I may fathom the nature of my emergency.
Number me among those who wait in digital queue,
For the agents of customer support,
Because my call is very important to them.
Number me among those who wait patiently
For said agents of support, especially technical,
Only to finally speak to a courteous man in India.
Number me for the purpose of Social Security,
Let that number be three and two and four
So that as I approach death I will be secure. And social.
Number me among the nourished
And not among those who are ranked
By the rule of first-come-first-serve.
Number me, otherwise, among those who stand in line
And not those who see no line
And who do not stand.
Number me among the ungrateful.
Dale Wisely
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- antstastegood
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- Dale
- The Landlord
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Thanks for your comments, on- and off-board.
I'm considering two other versions. Here's the 2nd:
Number me
Number me for the sake of order
And so that my name is not an impediment
To the even enforcement of policy.
Number me among the breathing
And among those who, by virtue of number,
Receive deep discounts at the pharmacy.
Number me among those who know whether
Attendance of preschool dance recitals
Is an aspect of Heaven or of Hell.
Number me among those at the emergency room,
By crisis of head or of bowel or of heart,
So that my I may fathom the nature of my emergency.
Number me among those who wait in digital queue,
For the agents of customer support,
Because my call is very important to them.
Number me among those who wait patiently
For said agents of support, especially technical,
To speak to a courteous man in India.
Number me for the purpose of Social Security,
Let that number be three and two and four
So that as I approach death I will be secure. And social.
Number me among the nourished
And not among those who are ranked
By the rule of first-come-first-serve.
Number me, otherwise, among those who stand in line
And not those who see no line
And who do not stand.
Number me among the grateful and the ungrateful,
The rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick,
The forgiven and the unforgiven,
Dale Wisely
The third option would be to drop the last stanza.
The fourth option would be, as someone wisely suggested, to let it sit for awhile. You know, sort of "throttle back."
Dale
I'm considering two other versions. Here's the 2nd:
Number me
Number me for the sake of order
And so that my name is not an impediment
To the even enforcement of policy.
Number me among the breathing
And among those who, by virtue of number,
Receive deep discounts at the pharmacy.
Number me among those who know whether
Attendance of preschool dance recitals
Is an aspect of Heaven or of Hell.
Number me among those at the emergency room,
By crisis of head or of bowel or of heart,
So that my I may fathom the nature of my emergency.
Number me among those who wait in digital queue,
For the agents of customer support,
Because my call is very important to them.
Number me among those who wait patiently
For said agents of support, especially technical,
To speak to a courteous man in India.
Number me for the purpose of Social Security,
Let that number be three and two and four
So that as I approach death I will be secure. And social.
Number me among the nourished
And not among those who are ranked
By the rule of first-come-first-serve.
Number me, otherwise, among those who stand in line
And not those who see no line
And who do not stand.
Number me among the grateful and the ungrateful,
The rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick,
The forgiven and the unforgiven,
Dale Wisely
The third option would be to drop the last stanza.
The fourth option would be, as someone wisely suggested, to let it sit for awhile. You know, sort of "throttle back."
Dale
- Jerry Freeman
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edited because I changed my mind.
Last edited by Jerry Freeman on Sun Feb 29, 2004 4:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.
- Byll
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- glauber
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I agree. The first version had a shocking directness to it.
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog!
--Wellsprings--
--Wellsprings--
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The orig. works for me. It could be argued that the stanza by stanza recital of ups and downs, the annoyances and the compensations, is actually a list of thinly disguised luxury problems. We experience illness, but there are emergency rooms, I'm here to write this, and so on. There is an implicit awareness that these little 'slinglets of irritating fortune' will soon pass. And so, the author comes clean. In recognizing and owning up to his lack of gratitude he signals his awareness that, without some acceptance of these inevitables, he will be estranged from gratitude. In 'ratting himself out' he is admitting his humanity, because he knows all of this.
But it is sometiimes hard to keep that in sight. That is what the poem points to for me.
Sometimes, the thing that makes a document a great text is the willingness of folks to treat it as such.
Thanks Dale for providing us with a great text!
Tom D.
But it is sometiimes hard to keep that in sight. That is what the poem points to for me.
Sometimes, the thing that makes a document a great text is the willingness of folks to treat it as such.
Thanks Dale for providing us with a great text!
Tom D.
- Dale
- The Landlord
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Thanks. I had a poem called "Akeldama" published in AMERICA (The national Jesuit weekly). It was accepted for publication by Paul Mariani, their poetry editor, who happened to be a favorite poet of mine. The version they published had two stanzas at the end which the first version didn't. Although the additional stanzas give it a different element, to this day I think it's a better poem in the shorter version. I've been showing "Number Me" to some poets and, so far, they are evenly divided between the original and the 2nd version. So it goes.
Hey. How 'bout that Lord of the Rings thing? Maybe I ought to see one of those movies!
I was backing Lost in Translation, but couldn't blame the Academy for honoring Peter Jackson & company nor could I begrudge the Oscar to Sean Penn. Glad Sofia won for screenplay, anyway.
I'm going to work, in spite of the fact that this nasty URI has crawled into my chest. Later.
Dale
Hey. How 'bout that Lord of the Rings thing? Maybe I ought to see one of those movies!
I was backing Lost in Translation, but couldn't blame the Academy for honoring Peter Jackson & company nor could I begrudge the Oscar to Sean Penn. Glad Sofia won for screenplay, anyway.
I'm going to work, in spite of the fact that this nasty URI has crawled into my chest. Later.
Dale