Yin and Yang is kind of like Left and Right brain thinking

In talking about balance and Yin and Yang, I can’t help but think about right and left brains.  I took one of those stupid Facebook quizzes recently and it told me that I'm 76% Left brained (focusing on Symbolism) and 24% Right brained.  I am a very linear thinker.  Things are orderly.  Numbers don’t lie.  I am not flowery, I am squarely in “the box” so when someone says to think outside the box, I'm at a loss.  Make up something on the spot without parameters, I don’t think so.  So 876% left sounds about right (or correct as the case may be.)

“So, if you’re so left brained and non-creative how can you be a poet and so successful at Charlapalooza?” you might ask. 

If you don’t remember or weren’t subscribed at the time of Charlapalooza, the quick and dirty description is me against another poet writing quick poems about suggested topics.

In response, I would say, “Because you all told me what to write about!”

There was a large and glaring difference between the poems that Danielle Rose (my last competitor) wrote and those that I wrote.  Mine were shorter, condensed and more literal translations of the suggestions.  Danielle’s were more creative, more outside the box.  Here’s an example.

 Kim Hartnett’s suggestion was “Seashell Secrets” and she said it needed to be an alliteration

My poem read:

Seashells have sensual secrets

Tickling temptations and tonal tendencies

Undertones of the undersea

Vestiges of the voluptuousness

Wanton and willful

X-rated and exhilarating

Yummy

Zing

Danielle’s poem read:

The cool touch of it against my ear

Screamed with the sound of the

Waves crashing high over my head.

Instantly brought back to the summer,

Those moments with my feet in sand

Like snow, sun like charcoal on my hair.

What I wouldn’t give to be there again,

Listening to the water racing on the shore

And racing back again. The unending cycle.

What I wouldn’t give to be back there,

Lost in the sound of that seashell.

Softly slipping water, sliding over

Shells and sounds of the seashore.

What I wouldn’t give to see him once more

On the softly sliding slopes of the dunes.

The secret slippery slope of a seashell.

 See what I mean?  Here’s another.

Secret desire – By Danielle Rose

  ~suggested by Dahlia Ramone

There’s a door in the forest

Covered by trees.

If you look carefully you’ll find

Photo by Kely Luzio-Cardona

A mound of sweet purple blooms

That have no business in that shaded 

Grove, basking in rays of sunlight 

Covering an oak slab door. 

What I wouldn’t give to give up

The meatloaf for dinner, the emails

For work, the laundry needing folding.

I’d run to that grove, sneaking into that

Streamer of sunlight, breathing in the 

Blossoms, escaping forever into the

Unknown of that oaken secret door.

And mine:

1:23 AM

The dogs are barking again

Nudge Jon without hope

Swing legs over the side

Toss on a robe and slippers

As the dogs dance in excitement

Glad I’ve acknowledged their need

To bark at stuff probably

Trudge downstairs

Dogs leading the way

Open the sliding glass door

Rush to talk to their imaginary mid-night friends

Open the pantry and look for chips

Try and get them down quietly

As if

Nothing’s quiet in the sleepy silence

Sit on the couch

And gently crunch a handful

Let the dogs in and

Grab just one more – handful that is

Share the last couple chips

Begrudgingly with the dogs

              One to each

Creep back to bed

See what I mean?  We think differently.  And that’s what makes the world awesome.  Our differences.  If we didn’t have differences, the world would be monochromatic, monotonous and boring.

 Do you think you’re right or left brained?  If you'd like to check out the other poems that were written for Charlapalooza (and there were other great poems including one about a mouse living in a tennis ball!) click the links above to check them out.

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