Dual Purpose

I'm joining Kym today for Poem in Your Pocket Day, a day to choose your favorite poem, carry it with you, and share it with others. Also, the Think Write Thursday topic for today is to write a post that begins with the words, "Remember the time ..." So, here is my dual purpose PiYPD/TWT post.

I remember the time I heard Wislawa Szymborska read "A Tale Begun" on NPR in 2007 and I was immediately struck. While I haven't carried this poem in my pocket, I have carried it with me in my planner for the last ten years so I could read it often.The lines at the end still bring tears to my eyes. Perhaps it will also speak to you.

A Tale Begun

The world is never ready

for the birth of a child.

Our ships are not yet back from Winnland.

We still have to get over the S. Gothard pass.

We've got to outwit the watchmen on the desert of Thor,

fight our way through the sewers to Warsaw's center,

gain access to King Harald the Butterpat,

and wait until the downfall of Minister Fouche.

Only in Acapulco

can we begin anew.

We've run out of bandages,

matches, hydraulic presses, arguments, and water.

We haven't got the trucks, we haven't got the Minghs' support.

This skinny horse won't be enough to bribe the sheriff.

No news so far about the Tartars' captives.

We'll need a warmer cave for winter

and someone who can speak Harari.

We don't know whom to trust in Nineveh,

what conditions the Prince-Cardinal will decree,

which names Beria has still got inside his files.

They say Karol the Hammer strikes tomorrow at dawn.

In this situation let's appease Cheops,

report ourselves of our own free will,

change faiths,

pretend to be friends with the Doge

and say that we've got nothing to do with the Kwabe tribe.

Time to light the fires.

Let's send a cable to grandma in Zabierzow.

Let's untie the knots in the yurt's leather straps.

May delivery be easy,

may our child grow and be well.

Let him be happy from time to time

and leap over abysses.

Let his heart have strength to endure

and his mind be awake and reach far.

But not so far

that it sees into the future.

Spare him

that one gift,

0 heavenly powers.

~Wislawa Szymborska

From View With a Grain of Sand, 1993

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Read other Think ... Write ... Thursday! posts here, and sign up for Carole and Kat's great idea here.