What is sacred about all of our lives, even those of us who would never dream of using such a word for it, is that God speaks to us through what happens to us - even through such unpromising events as walking up the road to get the mail out of the mailbox, maybe, or seeing something in the news that brings you up short, or laughing yourself silly with a friend. If skeptics ask to be shown an instance of God speaking to them in their lives, I suggest that they pay closer attention to the next time when, for unaccountable reasons, they find tears in their eyes.
-- Frederick Buechner
|
Office Aisle
Oh office aisle
Your pens & paper
Draw me like new
lotto games
Unscratched promises
and wagers
of wonders you'll coax from my brain
tiny tubes of unleaked stories
desperate whispering of the page
former trees that beg to feel the carving of a fine point's blade
Pilot, Bic & EverSharp
artists pads & index cards
Sanford, Cross & Mead & Parker
Paper Mate & Magic Marker
Spiral pads of every size
One will surely make me wise
And see that journal bound in leather?
Now there's a key to writing better.
Regardless of the store I've entered
I'm drawn to stationery center
compelled to find there something new
in lead or tip or grip or hue
How do you suck me in each time?
And how come I can never find
one of those million pads or pens
when siezed by actual writing whims
Oh office aisle
I swear I'm through
I'll never buy again from you
I'm headed for the Staples Door
and..
wait..
I've never seen THAT pen before...
- January 2002
|