Pendulation
Written by: joaquin
I must be good at something –
law of averages and such –
just haven’t figured out yet
what it is or quite how much
broken bells
and broken clocks
and rusted keys
to broken locks
I know nobody’s perfect
so the converse must be true –
everyone must have a place
and something they can do
broken clocks
and broken plates
and hinges hung
with broken gates
the people rushing past me
all have somewhere else to be -
six billion people out there
so there must be one for me
even broken clocks
they say
are right a couple
times a day.
There was a time in my life I would have resonated with these words. Not now though.
I guess everyone has a down and dumped phase in life one time or the other.
But this is so melancholy. So innocent. So genius.
Your poems should seriously be included into school curriculum. I’m going to show your book to my school’s English teacher when I go back home the next time.
This has to be one of my favorites on this blog. What does amaze me is brilliant, seemingly effortless rhythm in this poem.
Aniket, pick up that guitar of your and compose some tune for this charming piece here. It’s quite singable!
Nobody — and I mean NOBODY — does it better than jc! Perfect pitch in poetry.
The words tease me. They can be taken literally and figuratively. I don’t know which one I should pick. Sigh. Lovely lovely rhythm too.
I love how you played with inertia and rhythm here. I felt the pull between momentum and stall-out. Funny part is–the internal rhythm of the poem is so smooth and effortless that it slyly undermines the narrator’s reflections.
The last stanza, of course, is perfect. In fact, there was something very tight and circular about the whole piece. Your clock is never, ever broken.