Let's build our dream home under the wires of progress Nestled beside the highway that leads to success
A grey brick enclave an armlength away
From the next monstrosity blocking the sun everday
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We'll build our deck on our treeless patch of green
That we share with our neighbours, sight unseen.
Brand new detached, free from all history
Filled with boxstore keepsakes stripped of antiquity.
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We'll consult with the experts on the colours we choose.
Who knows if the trend is a palette of taupe or blues.
Make sure there's a jacuzzi and a plasma TV
Line the stairway with IKEA artwork to see.
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Weekday mornings up before the sun awakes
Head to work past the landscaped man made lake
Take the on ramp that leads to the collectors lane
Join the crowd of strangers who must be insane.
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And slowly our identities will mesh with the rest
As we continue to live in our quaint little nest.
Amongst parents who have no time for their tykes
Who have chosen to live in Branthaven Heights.
There is an alternative to losing our minds
Let's head east down the road to the Maritimes.
Where the homes hold memories of times past and new
And the people have time to ask....How are You?
Let's get in the car and get the hell out of here
Before the next onslaught of pollution floats by us too near
Back to a place where the living is a much better fit
Where the people's sincerity isn't bullshit.
Give me the storied old veranda anyday. I want to hear its tales. I want mine to seep into its floorboards as well, to blend with the others.
7 comments:
Oh the cottages are so cosy and your poem just wonderful.
Life is a bit like that here and People still ask How are you
"Progress" is coming fast though and ugly new buidings and hasty people appear
what was it heschel said, "All our experiences are needs, dissolving when the needs are fulfilled. but the truth is, our existence, too is a need. We are such stuff as needs are made of, and our little life is rounded by a will. Lasting in our life is neither passion nor delight, neither joy nor pain but the answer to a need. The lasting in us is not our will to live. there is a need for our lives, and in living we satisfy it. Lasting is not our desire, but our answer to that need, an agreement not an impulse. Our needs are temporal while our being needed is lasting."
don't know why but having read your post - the old rabbi's words are screaming...
Not one of those lovely houses could be in England! I love verandahs, wish we had one, with vegetation of a scented sort clambering over, chairs ready for sitting on, drinks to hand......
Ah well, I can dream, can't I!
Marja...I don't know why progress has to have such an ugly facade to it. Maybe the ambitious are in too much of a hurry to recognize the need for beauty. Or maybe their beauty looks very different to how I see things.
Paul...i like that quote....it reminds me of the discussion I had with the cabbie about our thoughts being temporal too.
I wrote this litty ditty a few years back in a journal I revisited last night (the summer before I knew about blogging)while driving through a particularly bleak(to me) stretch of the new highway that cuts through the farmland north of Toronto. In a couple of years, it had sprouted these beige subdivision with monstrous homes all cluttered close to exit ramps. It blew my mind.
Heschel's words ring true.
I was also reading my notes on a book by Rollo May, Freedom and Destiny last night, and may write a bit about it in another posted. But what struck me again was his notion of synthesizing individualism and community as the means with which our needs and destinies can possibly be fulfilled.
Gilly....these photos were taken in downtown Fredericton NB (Direct flights from Gatwick btw) All the old beautiful houses have verandas which are inviting looking as these!
It all looks so comfy and cozy and Oh So Pretty!!! I LOVE your poem, Dana....it sets such a visual tone...And then the pictures enhance it because we actually see what you are writing about...!
Oh, and I forgot to say, I LOVE your Header Picture! It Is SMASHING!
Naomi...I think you would love Fredericton.
Glad you like my header. It's a macro shot of a glass candle holder I have on my dining room table. I love it too! :)
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