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SpokenVerse | Poem For People That Are Understandably Too Busy To Read Poetry by Stephen Dunn @SpokenVerse | Uploaded June 2014 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
The movie stills are from Lost in Translation with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. The theme of the poem reminded me of the movie.

Relax. This won't last long.
Or if it does, or if the lines
make you sleepy or bored,
give in to sleep, turn on
the T.V., deal the cards.
This poem is built to withstand
such things. Its feelings
cannot be hurt. They exist
somewhere in the poet,
and I am far away.
Pick it up anytime. Start it
in the middle if you wish.
It is as approachable as melodrama,
and can offer you violence
if it is violence you like. Look,
there's a man on a sidewalk;
the way his leg is quivering
he'll never be the same again.
This is your poem
and I know you're busy at the office
or the kids are into your last nerve.
Maybe it's sex you've always wanted.
Well, they lie together
like the party's unbuttoned coats,
slumped on the bed
waiting for drunken arms to move them.
I don't think you want me to go on;
everyone has his expectations, but this
is a poem for the entire family.
Right now, Budweiser
is dripping from a waterfall,
deodorants are hissing into armpits
of people you resemble,
and the two lovers are dressing now,
saying farewell.
I don't know what music this poem
can come up with, but clearly
it's needed.
For it's apparent
they will never see each other again
and we need music for this
because there was never music when he or she
left you standing on the corner.
You see, I want this poem to be nicer
than life. I want you to look at it
when anxiety zigzags your stomach
and the last tranquilizer is gone
and you need someone to tell you
I'll be here when you want me
like the sound inside a shell.
This poem is saying that to you now.
But don't give anything for this poem.
It doesn't expect much. It will never say more
than listening can explain.
Just keep it in your attache case
or in your house. And if you're not asleep
by now, or bored beyond sense,
this poem wants you to laugh. Laugh at
yourself, laugh at this poem, at all poetry.

Come on:
Good.
Now here's what poetry can do.
Imagine yourself a caterpillar.
There's an awful shrug and, suddenly,
You're beautiful for as long as you live.
Poem For People That Are Understandably Too Busy To Read Poetry by Stephen DunnOn the Road by Jack Kerouac - continuing Chapter 1-3 (read by Tom OBedlam)No Leaders Please by Charles Bukowski (read by Tom OBedlam)An Address to the Rev. George Gilfillan by William McGonagall (read by Tom OBedlam)The Lake Isle by Ezra Pound (read by Tom OBedlam)The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson (read by Tom OBedlam)Dear John by David Mason (read by Tom OBedlam)Wild Oats by Philip Larkin (read by Tom OBedlam)At the Quinte Hotel by Al Purdy (read by Tom OBedlam)Television by Roald Dahl (read by Tom OBedlam)Snake by D H Lawrence (read by Tom OBedlam)Bavarian Gentians by D H Lawrence (read by Tom OBedlam)

Poem For People That Are Understandably Too Busy To Read Poetry by Stephen Dunn @SpokenVerse

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