Saturday, March 12, 2005

POEM: A Blind Child Speaks

I may not see the way you do
With eyes so bright and quick
But I know where flowers abound
And where the grass grows thick

I know if you are kinda little
And I know if you are tall
O I can see so many things
YOU may not see at all

I use my ears and hands for eyes
And make them see for me
I listen hard and gently touch
And thus it is I see

God must have a reason
For making me like this
Perhaps He meant for me to see
What other people miss!



Copyright 1950 Barbara Bodine

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

PodPoet:

I just want to say that your grandmother's poem is both touching, tasteful and by far one of the best poems I have heard spoken aloud in a long time. Her voice was not only the light of the poem - it was the core essence of beauty to bring out both the sadness and the sheer emotional empathy we are to feel for the poem.

Poetry has always been inspiring and thought-provoking to me, and, alas, I have gone astray from it for quite some time. Then I hear someone who has written a poem that seems to be a treasure lost in time. And I think that with her reading of it now - through the greatness of the internet - we can now hear a voice with which our generation does not reconcile much. That voice is of those who have lived in the past - and hold much glory in the present. Perhaps our heroes are not those who try to redefine the art of poetry today, but those who have hidden poetry in the past. Your grandmother's poem should be heard by all the world, and then some. Quite beautiful indeed, it touches the core of poetry.

Paul E.

Anonymous said...

i think this little poem is very sweet, and holds much truth. thank you for sharing. blessings

Anonymous said...

Sweet, but the meter falls apart reducing its charm, and the repetition doesn't seem to have much point.

Anonymous said...

"O I can see so many things / YOU may not see at all"
"Perhaps He meant for me to see / What other people miss!"

is the only direct repetition, but I suppose more what I wanted to say was something along the lines of--

You use an awful lot of words to say not so much. I understand that happens often when going for a cute tone, and I'm just as guilty of it sometimes, but it really doesn't work for me, here.

Like watching a child skip along the road, where they trip over their shoelaces every other step.

It might help if you hypothesized a few things that other people miss--not to the extent of a laundry list, but something more than "I know something you don't know! I know something you don't know!"

Perhaps.