With Thanks to
Uselessness
Litany
by Billy Collins
You are the bread and the knife,
The crystal goblet and the wine....
--Jacques Crickillon
You are the
bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker,
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.
However, you are not the wind in the
orchard,
the plums on the counter,
or the house of cards.
And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.
It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,
maybe even the pigeon on the general's head,
but you are not even close
to being the field of
cornflowers at dusk.
And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither the boots in the corner
nor the boat asleep in its
boathouse.
It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful
imagery of the world,
that I am the sound of rain on the roof.
I also happen to be the shooting star,
the evening paper blowing down an alley
and the basket of
chestnuts on the kitchen table.
I am also the moon in the trees
and the blind woman's tea cup.
But don't worry, I'm not the bread and the knife.
You are still the bread and the knife.
You will always be the bread and the knife,
not to mention the crystal goblet and--
somehow--the wine.
You bet. Makes me smile every time I read it.
Thanks for listing this poem reesetee; I hadn't read it in a long time and really enjoyed reading it again.
LOVE this poem. It's one of my favorites.
Well, I wanted to give credit where it's due--plus it's fun to spell "uselessness." But I suppose it *does* make sense not to try and number them consecutively throughout the site. Maybe I'll change that when I key in the next Poetrie. :-)
Wow, that's a cool poem. I hadn't read it before. Definitely my style.
BTW, I was joking about that possessiveness -- there's no need to link to me for all eternity in the list title. :-) Also, you can number yours independently if you want. I just keep a count going for my own Stuffies and Poetries so I can keep better track of them. If we tried to tally every single one on the site, if this thing were to take off, there'd be no way to keep the count accurate!