In the Night Kitchen (With Broom)
In the Night Kitchen (With Broom)
I sweep the kitchen floor nights,
light as dim as brain, and think
in the quiet swish
how lucky that it’s just detritus
(sweep sweep)
I rearrange,
the letters like me, myself–anyone–
swept so easily in the big
back-and-forth
into weeps weeps weeps,
wishes dust-jumbled–
how wonderful
to be just
sweeping–
**********************************
Here’s a one-day belated Friday Flash 55 posted for the G-Man. Tell him it got lost in the mail. I am also linking this with dVerse Poets Pub Poetics prompt posted by Shanyn; the prompt deals with using a familiar phrase. I’m not sure this is quite right for the prompt, but in my case, the phrase would be the title derived from the wonderful Maurice Sendak.
Tags: better to just deal with dust, Friday Flash 55, manicddaily, Saturday Flash 55, Sweeping poem, Sweeping rearranged
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ManicDDaily 
September 14, 2013 at 9:29 am
Love the weeping and wishing 🙂
September 14, 2013 at 9:36 am
Thanks, Polly.
September 14, 2013 at 10:04 am
Nothing more soul cleansing than mindless labor towards order–not that I enjoy it indoors, but I do find it gratifying, absorbing, and safe, somehow, when I’m doing it in the garden. This has a very haunting feel to it, in the swishing and wishing and the sense of absence of purpose yet effort and will expended–looking for that rearrangement, that cleansing, that keeps things straight and whole. Really hard to believe it’s only 55 words, too–which is the best test of how much it carries. Just excellent, k.
September 14, 2013 at 10:13 am
Thanks. The combinations were ones I’d not thought of before. Sorry for all the long political commentary. You know we are truly on the same page. I just have to believe in some earnestness down there in D.C.–maybe because it is my hometown. k.
September 14, 2013 at 12:24 pm
No worries–mine is even longer, k–and I think we’re in the same chapter of the same book as well as same page–parts of us do believe on, that’s their function–in my case, the inner hippie refuses to die, maybe because so many people have tried so hard to kill it. ;_)
September 14, 2013 at 11:04 am
Lost in the mail…
Karin, you know that you can do NO wrong in my eyes Baby..:-)
your creativity every week just blows my mind
Loved your sweeping 55
Thank you for always putting together a visually superb post
Thanks for playing, thanks for your support, and have a Kick Ass Week-End
September 14, 2013 at 12:17 pm
I like this. If only everything unwanted in life could be swished away as simply as with a broom, it would be quite nice!!
September 14, 2013 at 2:01 pm
nice… sweeping has something meditative… when i’m hovering in the house, i’m always so lost in thoughts that i’m sometimes not quite sure if i hovered this room already…
September 14, 2013 at 6:38 pm
ha i can hear the broom a bit in your words…def dont mind to do a bit of the housework allowing my mind time to wander when i dont have to think about what i am doing…i rather like washing dishes personally…
September 14, 2013 at 6:42 pm
I really like washing dishes. But maybe not all day long. Ha. Thanks, Brian. k.
September 14, 2013 at 6:58 pm
This touched me, it is cathartic and beautiful.
September 14, 2013 at 7:06 pm
Totally cool…and I like it! 🙂
September 14, 2013 at 7:27 pm
Back in my grayest leaden-eyed days, as a blue collar wage slave, I had several assembly line jobs where one had to first nail down the chores with repetition, then zone out enriching the soul with loftier thoughts of poetry, film, dance–composing, planning, & all the while engaged in mindless, almost meditative labor; then I lucked out and became a special educator working with the blind, and found it a joy to focus all of me on the teaching.
September 14, 2013 at 7:44 pm
This gave me a lump in the throat, for whatever reason. It started with your image…there is something so centering about those tasks we have to do, if we allow them to teach us. Today I actually enjoyed doing laundry. We need those simple interludes in our crazy days.
September 14, 2013 at 8:15 pm
there a sad softness to this, like getting lost in a daydream while being lulled by the repetitive sweeps. impressive in only 55 words too.
September 14, 2013 at 8:35 pm
ah, because it is, after all, just dust
September 15, 2013 at 4:43 am
Sweep and weep… that was very telling. never thought of it that way. Ironing shirts can work wonders sometimes for me…
September 15, 2013 at 10:48 am
What a great metaphor for cleansing, achieving peace. I think we do feel calmer inside when our surroundings are orderly. I like folding clothes. Unique take on the prompt 🙂
September 15, 2013 at 1:21 pm
sweeping away your cares. I do like the thought “how lucky that it’s just detritus (sweep sweep) I rearrange”, it can always be worse, huh?
September 15, 2013 at 1:41 pm
There’s a definite sadness to this but I love the idea of swishing and wishing.
September 15, 2013 at 1:54 pm
Even the simplist task is magic between your fingers. Well done. This strikes a chord. For me, it’s swishing dishwater.
September 15, 2013 at 5:14 pm
Sonorously sweet ~recalling Anne Lindberg’s book & the need for the simplicity of daily work’s fulfillment ~ Wonderful k! D
September 17, 2013 at 11:57 pm
the textures in this one are intriguing, adding a percussion to the day to day. wonderful.