At the bank around the corner

[PrinceMyshkin]

At the bank around the corner
you need one more piece of identification
than you ever have.

The tellers are invariably cheerful
(though grotesquely underpaid)
as they explain that the form

you just filled out is the wrong one
and, regrettably, the right one
is not available at that branch.

No one who ever went in there
has, as yet, come out with what they sought

and yet the line-ups, inside and outside the bank,
are long and, for the most part, patient.





Jerry Newman © 09Feb08

[Sweets America]

Although it's not my favorite of yours (I am not touched by it, but who said poetry should always touch the reader?), I like the funny and preposterous tone of this poem. It's once again thought-provoking in a way that you manage so well to convey.

[TheFifthElement]

I like this one, it's like an expression of life. I'm pretty sure I'll never find that d*mned form but then as an English person I guess I don't mind standing in the queue - you never know who you might meet there.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Although it's not my favorite of yours

But, darling, I have heard that so often from you that I am beginning to wonder what IS your favourite poem by me, if any!

It reminds me a little of this very funny quotation:


The remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served us nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.
Calvin Trillin


(I am not touched by it, but who said poetry should always touch the reader?), I like the funny and preposterous tone of this poem. It's once again thought-provoking in a way that you manage so well to convey.

Good point about whether poetry need always touch one, nor that it need touch one in a certain way rather than another.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I like this one, it's like an expression of life. I'm pretty sure I'll never find that d*mned form

And yet you know as well as I do that the form exists, that it is either under that letter you never got around to answering and which you've misplaced or it is in the Bureau of Indispensable Forms Never to be Released.

I'm sending off to my polylingual son to see if there might be a Latin or Greek word for the fear of filling out forms, a condition I suffer from, convinced that every form was designed explicitly to trip me up and expose me as a fraud!

[blazeofglory]

[B][INDENT]At the bank around the corner
you need one more piece of identification
than you ever have.



This is indeed a beauty you composed. Of course this poem touched me. I like the poem, for a simple reason that it is different from the traditional one. It is not necessary that you should write in the same vein it is written generally in conventional frames. I like the poem for the honesty and justification I find in it to the feeling that arises within us and get more often than not molded and conditioned by our limited theories and understanding of it.

[kiz_paws]

Prince, you are sooooo funny. A well said poem in the usual straight-shootin' manner of yours.

AND your comment about the "where is the original meal", from the left-over anecdote slayed me.... :lol:

LitNet is filled with such good natured, witty people. **hugs for all**

K♥z

[PrinceMyshkin]

your comment about the "where is the original meal", from the left-over anecdote slayed me.... :lol:

Not my comment but that of Calvin Trillin who writes about food for the New Yorker, and I feel about it as you do. It's the kind of quiet killer of a remark that I love!

[Pendragon]

No wonder Jesse James just robbed ther joints... :lol:

[PrinceMyshkin]

No wonder Jesse James just robbed ther joints... :lol:

If you have any fondness for the legend of Jesse J. and have not yet seen it I'd recommend the movie available on DVD: The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid.

[Pendragon]

If you have any fondness for the legend of Jesse J. and have not yet seen it I'd recommend the movie available on DVD: The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid.
Think that's the one I have, thanks, mon ami.