Building Something Out of NothingA Poem by Poetic LicenseI’m afraid I’m not terribly great at this “rebuilding,” This taking of nothing, adding mortar and making something else. It’s not the effort, mind you, I quite enjoy the work, it keeps me busy, keeps me from thinking, No, it’s the strategy of the whole thing. First comes the sorting of all the rubble, Discerning what might be reused, Pushing aside that which is too badly damaged, The unstable, the volatile, the weakened, All must be shoved aside, out of the way. The materials left to use are pitiable at best, So, I sort back through the rubble once again, Perhaps I settle on a cracked block, Hoping to hedge it in between two whole blocks, Wondering whether it will hold. Then starts the excavating, the leveling, This is ugly, dirty, dusty work, A bulldozer would make short work of it all, But, alas, I am doing it by hand, Bending, tugging, sliding, cursing and digging. I finally just recently started the actual reconstruction phase, Which is to say I chose my least damages blocks, And began to fashion a foundation, Fitting them tightly, paying attention to those damaged pieces, Trying to calculate the load they will bear. It is slow, laborious work, this rebuilding, It involves math, chemistry, physics and manpower, It also calls for common sense, Measure twice, cut once… I realized only yesterday I had forgotten that step. My angles are misaligned, the joints won’t hold, I shake my head at the mess I have built and must now dismantle, This beautiful “becoming” project of mine, And I wonder, not for the first time… How precisely does one building something out of nothing. © 2018 Poetic LicenseFeatured Review
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4 Reviews Added on July 11, 2018 Last Updated on July 11, 2018 AuthorPoetic LicenseChallis, IDAboutThere is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. - Hemingway Fyrene ond fæhðe fela missera, singale sæce, sibbe ne wolde wið manna hwone m&ae.. more..Writing
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