"Missing..."

This has to do with language and appreciation of it = and above all... understanding.

 

Everyone is a "native" speaker.  English (American or British - and both are unique and distinct) is NOT everyone's native (first) language.  Now why would I say this? especially here... now?  What has that got to do with anything at all?

Each of us care albeit in our own way.  And that care is expressed in how we try so damned hard to get others to "get" what we say, "get" what we write.  We want others to feel what we feel or felt or thought or did in ways that we intend.  Our words mirror our thoughts - and yet those thoughts are not always in our native language.  Nor is OUR language always the reader's/listener's native tongue.  The depth and difference of colors and meanings and shades-of-intent are not always present elsewhere - so some move to another language that more easily reflects or even allows what they want said OR heard.  Few have the depth of experience or knowledge of a second or tertiary language and while they think they said something, the true shade-of-meaning wasn't quite "right".  Dictionaries and online translation programs don't often express the full-flavor that may be inherent in the use of many words - let alone phrases or even author chosen combinations - in ANY language.

In many cases I feel I know what someone is trying to say and in others - well, I really haven't a clue.  I read aloud and something just 'sounds' wrong.  Unexpected words appear - that really don't fit my mindset... intentional? or not?; meaningful? or an oops?  In some cases a clear mistake THOUGH chosen.  At the very least a distraction - at worst you stop reading or listening.

There is a level of 'meanness' out here.  We overlook many because we are impatient... and when its we that are somehow "imperfect" well, anger does have this habit of flaring-up.

"Missing..."

Its little things -

the nothing things,

things that mean diddly -

and yet

- everything.

You
did
so many
- nothings -

Nothings that touched me,

paused me,

rocked my world...
so damn often.

I noticed
- but - what do you SAY
or do or
how do you BE when
its really - just - a -  'nothing'
again-and-again...
a thought-less, unintentional,

unconscious, un-aforethought
a - nothing?

You didn't have to be
as you were...
you didn't WORK at it -
its just ...you
and now - I'm lost.
You're still here - but you're not
...still
...here.

"Star light, star bright...
first star I see tonight -

I wish I may
I wish I might..."

Chris

Author's Note

thoughts...

Reviews

[olla]

saddened by the "nothing" we don't always realize how important "nothing" can be..

[sharonlee]

'live this wish I wish tonight'.....

[Teri B]

I think some of the heedlessness here is due not so much to meanness as to laziness, Chris. We've become accustomed to receiving bytes of information, prepared in their most easily assimilated forms, and the effort that is required to do more than "bark at the print" (a term I learned as a college grad studying the teaching of reading) isn't necessarily one some wish to make. So the demands inherent in getting past the unfamiliarity with the idioms and intentionality of a writer's work outweigh the pleasures to be gained from overcoming those obstacles.

Just re-reading this comment reminds me of how complicated all communication is, and of how poetry, the most condensed of the communicated forms, can stymie even the most determined reader!

Okay...shutting up now! It's the weekend, and I'm off duty! :)

[Wendy Seames Garner]

Other than simple childhood rhyming poetry, I am a complete newcomer to poetry. There are so many poets here at Writer's Cafe, I feel like I have been immersed in a crash course. I try very hard, but often I don't get what the writer means. I'll keep trying, I want to learn.

[Chris]

To ghostofdawn,

The "Star light star bright... etc" is a spoken aloud rendition by an adult (me) remembering a childhood rhyme in a comforting way... as most adults do when they have a "need"...

[asdarkeyesclose]

i think we have to accept diversity and i hope we are all kind enough to fill in the gaps when a foreign writer doesn't quite choose the right word, generally you can get a reasonable impression of what they mean, i tend to agree though that writers will probably be better in their first language than their second. some intriguing points here i liked your 'starlight, star bright' stanza, no sophistication just a wonderful simplicity :)

[Penlady]

..there is meanness out here? First time i ever heard or READ you even mentioning what people are about. In reading your work I felt YOUR need.

[J. J. Nightingale]

HAVE THIS WISH I WISH TONIGHT .. .. .. THAT I COULD BE UNDERSTOOD NO MATTER MY LANGUAGE OR EDUCATION OR SEX OR AGE OR ANY OTHER DAMN THING ....


JAZZ ...........PEACE OUT