not such a bad poem one: design

[achilles]

DESIGN

it seems he'd lost the design of things
the very shape of things around him
mostly it was the way the day might have design
how the streets would lead to a store or to a park
or the ocean or actually to any place at all
without design the streets led nowhere
and it was how the hours were designed
how he could ride a single emotion for an
entire day, whether joy or pain or desire
but when the design was lost
even for a while
all his miseries came out and strangled him
in a chaos, a void, completely undesigned
the way cancer cells develop
amorphous, ugly, demonic growths
with no artist whatsoever who designed them
it was clear to him, itself a design, that cancer
was the complete lack of art which was the
essence of design
and the artist the designer
so devoid of design life could become
that he became a poet for lack of any
other resource so that he could create, impose
a design on an empty, chaotic place
today was without design
and that's the point
for three years he'd stop at his woman's shop
just to see her, to say hello, but also to look
at the women who had their hair done, women
so concerned with beauty, at least its physical
form, and so often their notions were ridiculous
but he still appreciated these efforts
and his own woman, a beautician, an aesthetician,
my god, how lovely could that be
a designer by her trade
well, no matter, now he was an outcast from the shop
the place where common people went in droves for
art, to make their own bodies canvasses, to tell their
woes, their love secrets, their gripes, their prejudices,
miseries, stupidities, and he'd get it all second hand,
better no designing hand at all, from his woman
so, as i'm saying, today is without design
no shop for him anymore
only the cat
only the computer screen
a strange poem from a friend he's met maybe three
times in an entire lifetime
but that's a design also
the design of rarity, of words, of soul given in words,
poems, literature rather than life, or as hitchcock said,
good movies tell life without the boring parts
this too a design


achilles
2/19/10

[mnaz]

what's sometimes really interesting (or scary) is finding design in things that at first appear random or chaotic or even "empty." or creating or evoking designs therein. enjoyed.

[mtmynd]

nicely designed flow accenting
the validity of design as
all-encompassing for life to
succeed without barriers
hampering it's composition

tyvm

[hester_prynne]

The plot always thickens.
And thins.
A good design to know.
Such a good read man.

H

[theirishsea]

I like how this moves from the more abstract general to a very personal relationship---or lack of one.

Nice follow thru on the theme of design throughout.

[SmileGRL]

i love how this poem starts and i love how it ends.

[stilltrucking]

in-genius
design

much enjoyed reading
thank you very much

[Stinkyfinger]

Very nice; it kinda' reminds me of a Talking Heads song, David Byrnesque reflections.