It's the third Thursday of the month so I'd like to welcome you to A Gathering of Poetry. I had glimmers of this poem in my memory, but what I mainly recalled was tables and chairs abandoned by a pond. It took me a while to find it, but I knew it as soon as I read it, and was glad to see that chairs, tables, and a lake were actually mentioned.
The Chairs That No One Sits In
by Billy Collins
You see them on porches and on lawns
down by the lakeside,
usually arranged in pairs implying a couple
who might sit there and look out
at the water or the big shade trees.
The trouble is you never see anyone
sitting in these forlorn chairs
though at one time it must have seemed
a good place to stop and do nothing for a while.
Sometimes there is a little table
between the chairs where no one
is resting a glass or placing a book facedown.
It might be none of my business,
but it might be a good idea one day
for everyone who placed those vacant chairs
on a veranda or a dock to sit down in them
for the sake of remembering
whatever it was they thought deserved
to be viewed from two chairs
side by side with a table in between.
The clouds are high and massive that day.
The woman looks up from her book.
The man takes a sip of his drink.
Then there is nothing but the sound of their looking,
the lapping of lake water, and a call of one bird
then another, cries of joy or warning—
it passes the time to wonder which.
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Collins, Billy. "The Chairs That No One Sits In". Poetry, November 2008.
You can read more about Billy Collins here.
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Living in a beach town I see those two empty chairs all over especially at the end of the docks where the rich folks live. The same with their balconies with their beautiful views. Never a soul on them.
ReplyDeleteThat is a real shame! I've never lived at the waterside but I'd like to think that if I wasn't in the water, I would be sitting looking at it a great deal of the time.
DeleteThis: "Then there is nothing but the sound of their looking" I think that is why those two chairs are always empty... because one member of the duo is never happy with just the sound of their looking.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Billy Collins and Amen!
This is a new-to-me poem by Billy Collins and I love it!! "the sound of their looking" is such a fabulous phrase.
ReplyDeleteOur best intentions . . . caught up in the busy-ness of our days. We have these two chairs that "live" on our cabin porch. They look so charming there . . . But we never sit on them! Because we're too busy sitting on our back deck -- with a better view of the lake and the woods. Or around the fire pit. Or at the end of our dock -- where we do sit in our chairs. Form vs. Function, I guess. And I love that poem! (Also the photo -- of the underwater-dock. . . No wonder no one is sitting there . . . )
ReplyDeleteLovely poem, Bonny. I have two chairs on my porch, and I often sit in one of them. I love the sound of looking, especially at the gloaming when the universe shows us all possibilities and encourages us to rest in preparation for the deep dark. It is a very contemplative time for me. Thank you for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteThe rocking chairs on our front porch most certainly feel neglected right now. The porch faces west, and there is NO WAY I'm venturing out there now ... I look forward to getting back out there in September! (it's interesting that so many of us can relate to exactly what Collins describes!)
ReplyDelete