Standard

Posted by

Posted on

March 19, 2016

Posted under

Poetry

Comments

36 Comments

Who are You?

Vermont Pond with loosestrife

I prefer tea.
I prefer rain to drought.
I prefer quiet to parties.
I prefer gardens in the centers of cities
where I can lay on my back and imagine flying with birds.
I prefer to feel than to be numb.
I prefer grief to forgetting.
I prefer dragon to draggin’ and phoenix to flames.
I prefer the golden rule.
I prefer chocolate to anything else
except passion and a lover’s approval.
I prefer to worship love than hate.
I prefer wildflower meadows
to gardens sliced by boxwood canyons.
I prefer to build rather than tear down.
I prefer the rhetoric of peace but cannot abide genocide.
I prefer mystery to someone’s else certainty.
I prefer to go unnoticed by Murphy’s Law.
I prefer happy to perfect and joyful to tidy.
I prefer to melt in the rain
than to send out flying monkeys.
I prefer books to movies except the Lord of Rings.
I prefer walking to gyms.
I prefer children laughing to silence.
I prefer silence to rage.
I prefer rage to despair.
I prefer to share despair than to turn away.
I prefer to look for magic rather than
ranting about its absence.
I prefer poetry to newspapers.
I prefer humble to Trump-eting.

Who are you?

Copyright 2016 Brenda Davis Harsham

Note: I was inspired to write this list poem by The Drift Record post celebrating Possibilities, a poem by Nobel-prize winning poet Wislawa Szymborska. When I understood who she was, I better understood myself.

I also put this up in honor of Women’s History Month and World Poetry Day (Monday).  Please feel free to write your own preferences and link up here, there or everywhere. Or put yours in the comments. Have a magical weekend!

36 thoughts on “Who are You?”

  4. I prefer your kind of preferences on this glorious Sunday morning coming up 🙂
    your humble to trumpeting was a big smile …
    “I prefer mystery to someone’s else certainty.
    I prefer to go unnoticed by Murphy’s Law.”
    i really like these two…come to think of it, I just love your ways of approaching life within kindness
    this is really great Brenda… this will have many thinking about who they are I’m sure
    I will have to look up Wislawa Szymborska, I do not know this wonderful person
    Take Care ….You Matter…
    maryrose

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Comments welcome!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.