A Poem For You

tags: poetry, block city, Robert Louis Stevenson

Today, I am having a lot of trouble accessing the internet. On Mondays, my wifi access is typically provided by a pub because the libraries with wifi are closed. But this pub was closed until after 5pm tonight, so I had to wait and wait and wait some more. I finally ran into the owner of the pub and he said this problem will continue until they hire someone who can start working at three. I told him that he should hire me, and he laughed in my face (gee, thanks). Whatever.

I am not sure what I will do to remedy my internet access problem, since any remedy that I can think of so far costs money. Anyway, while I was awaiting internet access, I spent some time reading a book that one of my devoted readers sent to me; America's Favorite Poems: The Favorite Poem Project Anthology edited by Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz (NYC, Norton: 1999). In this book, I ran across this poem that I thought you also would enjoy;

Block City

What are you able to build with your blocks?
Castles and palaces, temples and docks.
Rain may keep raining, and others go roam,
But I can be happy and building at home.

Let the sofa be mountains, the carpet be sea,
There I'll establish a city for me:
A kirk and a mill and a palace beside,
And a harbor as well where my vessels may ride.

Great is the palace with pillar and wall,
A sort of a tower on top of it all,
And steps coming down in an orderly way
To where my toy vessels lie safe in the bay.

This one is sailing and that one is moored:
Hark to the song of the sailors on board!
And see on the steps of my palace, the kings
Coming and going with presents and things!

-- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)